Trump: Pennsylvania Republicans should appeal redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court
By LOUIS NELSON
Pennsylvania Republicans should appeal their state’s court-drawn Congressional district map “all the way to the Supreme Court,” President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday, in order to stop Democrats from pursuing an agenda that Trump claimed will “raise taxes & waste money.”
The president’s push for further legal action followed the Monday release of the Pennsylvania House district map approved by the state’s supreme court and drawn with the help of Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily. Preliminary evaluations suggest that it could be highly beneficial for Democrats, showing 10 pro-Trump districts compared to the 13 where the president won in 2016.
“Hope Republicans in the Great State of Pennsylvania challenge the new ‘pushed’ Congressional Map, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Your Original was correct! Don’t let the Dems take elections away from you so that they can raise taxes & waste money!”
Republican leaders in Pennsylvania indicated in a statement released Monday night that they "anticipate further action in federal court" on their state's Congressional map.
Trump’s declaration that the state’s original House district map was correct puts him at odds with Pennsylvania’s supreme court, which ruled last month that the previous map “clearly, plainly and palpably violates” the state’s constitution because the GOP had gerrymandered it to favor their own party. The Supreme Court was forced to draw its own map when Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature failed to come to a compromise with Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
The supreme court-drawn map potentially favors Democrats by including extra seats in the Philadelphia suburbs, opening the possibility for Democratic gains in the House towards the party’s ultimate goal of taking over the majority in the House of Representatives.
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