Trump endorses GOP fight to keep gerrymandered congressional map

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump added his voice Saturday to the continued conservative outcry over the court-ordered redistricting of the Pennsylvania congressional map, calling the decision “very unfair to Republicans and to our country.”

“Democrat judges have totally redrawn election lines in the great State of Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This is very unfair to Republicans and to our country as a whole. Must be appealed to the United States Supreme Court ASAP!”

The Supreme Court this month denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to stop the state’s highest court from requiring lawmakers to redraw the map of the state’s 18 House districts. The new map, released by the state court this past week, effectively eliminates the Republican advantage in Pennsylvania, endangering several incumbent Republican seats and bolstering Democrat standings in two open races.

Pennsylvania is typically a swing state in statewide elections, and the new map, if it stands, could play a crucial role in efforts by the Democratic Party to gain control of the House in the midterm elections.

In January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ruling along party lines, struck down the congressional district map. The court said its partisan gerrymandering “clearly, plainly and palpably” violated the state constitution, and stepped in to draw the map when Republicans and Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, could not agree on a version.

Republican lawmakers in the state have refused to accept the court’s decision, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to again intervene and block the courtordered map from taking place. They have also filed a federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania, arguing the state court violated its constitutional authority by getting rid of the old map and drawing a new one.

One Republican lawmaker has also circulated a proposal to impeach the Democratic justices who served as the 5-to-2 majority in the ruling, and the president pro tempore of the state Senate, Joe Scarnati, a Republican, has publicly floated the idea of filing ethics complaints against two Democrat justices who expressed opinions on gerrymandering before the January ruling.