Pennsylvania’s two top elected Republican officials have asked Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, in his role as a Circuit Justice, to intervene in the election process for federal House members from that state until an election-map dispute can be settled.
On Wednesday morning, Justice Alito asked for a response to the new stay request by March 5, 2018 at 3 p.m. ET. For now, the primary election for the House is scheduled as part of the May 15, 2018 general primary in Pennsylvania. House candidates started collecting petition signatures on Tuesday from registered voters in areas defined by the state supreme court.
The stay petition was filed Tuesday night after a similar effort was unsuccessful with Pennsylvania’s state supreme court. State senate pro tempore Joe Scarnati and state House leader Mike Turzai asked Alito to issue a stay until a full appeal can be considered by the Supreme Court.
On February 19, the state Supreme Court published a new election map of House districts drawn by Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford Law school professor. The state court ruled that a revised 2011 map sent to Governor Tom Wolf still wasn’t in compliance with orders it gave the state legislature on January 22 to eliminate a bias it perceived in election maps that favored Republicans.
The Republican leaders first went to Alito on January 28 to ask for stay, arguing that only the state legislature, and not a state court, could determine the rules for the election of House members from a state to Congress in Washington. Justice Alito denied that state request a week later without comment.
The second request to Alito makes a similar argument, that the state court’s actions violate the federal constitution’s Elections Clause, and go against the Supreme Court’s ruling in a 2015 decision about Arizona redistricting that limits election-map decisions to state lawmakers.
Scarnati and Turzai’s request, if successful, would likely leave the prior election map, drawn by lawmakers in 2011, in place until the Supreme Court can rule on the case.
A separate lawsuit from eight House candidates about the election map was filed with a three-judge federal panel in Harrisburg, with a hearing set for March 9.
A special election on March 18 for a House seat in western Pennsylvania will proceed under the 2011 election map.
