SCOTUS Justice Alito asks for responses to GOP bid to block new Pa. congressional map

[FakeNoose]

Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-state/2018/02/28/Samuel-Alito-GOP-bid-block-new-court-drawn-Pennsylvania-congressional-map/stories/201802280163

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Feb. 28th, 2018 1:01 PM
Authors: Jonathan Lai and Liz Navratil, Harrisburg Bureau

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Wednesday asked participants in a key Pennsylvania gerrymandering case to respond to a request from top Republican lawmakers that the nation’s highest court step in and block the new congressional map.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the previous congressional map and imposing a new one.

Justice Alito gave participants in the case until 3 p.m. Monday to file their responses.

He made a similar move a few weeks ago after Mr. Scarnati and Mr. Turzai filed a similar request to step in and stop the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from overturning the state’s congressional map. In that first request, Justice Alito sought responses from the parties in the case before denying the request without comment and without referring it to the whole court to decide.

Experts are calling this a long shot because Judge Alito's previous ruling was on an almost identical argument which was later denied a hearing.

Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, has also maintained that the request is unlikely to succeed.

“If you’re a Republican defending a map and you can’t even get Justice Alito to refer the thing to the whole court, that’s a pretty weak challenge,” he said. “And this go round, it’s even weaker.”

So it's just another delaying tactic and the Judge Alito will decide whether to hear the case next Monday March 5th.

[SCantiGOP]

1. I know he could change his mind

but Alito would look like a political hack if he reversed the opinion he took just weeks ago.

The analysis I have read says that there is no statistical argument that the new map was drawn to benefit Democrats. This is why Governor and state legislature races are so damned important.

[FakeNoose]

2. The new map won't solve all the problems for PA Democrats

But it will be loads better than what we have now.

The real solution is a Bipartisan Committee that will go to work after the 2020 Census drawing a fair sensible map that benefits neither party. There are 2 bills in the PA legislature that need to pass to make that happen, and guess who's fighting them the whole way?

The same weasels who are fighting this map going through.

[SCantiGOP]

3. Surprisingly

A poll came out today that showed 67% of South Carolina wants an independent non-partisan board to handle appointment.
I don’t think it will happen since GOP has 2/3 of both houses under the current system.

BTW, another surprise is Trump approval is negative at 42-50.