Play by our rules

I’ve written about the gerrymandering case in Pennsylvania, in which the state Supremes demanded new maps pronto in time to be used for this year’s Congressional elections.

The state GOP sent a request to the national Supremes asking for a stay while cases from Wisconsin and Maryland go through the national court. The request went to Justice Alito, who oversees federal courts in PA.

Alito refused the request. Yes, Alito. Some say it is because Alito saw the weakness in the state GOP position. Other say it is a standard conservative position – drawing district maps is a state issue. That is probably the line he and his conservative colleagues will use in the Wisconsin/Maryland case.

Not only is the GOP refusing to cooperate in creating replacement maps (to be completed in 9 days) they are now threatening to impeach the five justices who ruled against them. Since the GOP has a majority in the state House and a supermajority in the Senate (both due to the gerrymandering the justices struck down) they might be able to pull off the impeachment. We don’t need democracy!



The Ohio Senate has passed a redistricting reform bill. A citizen’s group had threatened to get the issue on the November ballot, prompting the legislature to act. This new plan must pass the House, then pass the voters in May.

This way of doing it won’t create a citizen’s commission. The maps will still be drawn by the legislature. But there are restrictions. Most of the counties cannot be split, 18 counties can be split in two, and the five largest can be split in three. In the four rounds of the process the minority party must have significant support. If they get to the end and the minority party refuses to support it, then the map is good for four years instead of ten. It’s not as good as an independent commission, but much better than what Ohio has now.