Redistricting was a stretch, but not impeachable act

The Battle of the Districts isn’t over yet. Unfortunately. New congressional districts were created by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the fallout from a lawsuit against the last redistricting process. Back in 2011, Republicans who control the state Legislature created a bizarre congressional map that clearly was contorted – literally twisted and turned – in a grotesque fashion meant to favor Republicans, in particular GOP incumbents in the southeastern part of the state.

The high court agreed with the League of Women Voters and others that the redistricting was a blatant gerrymander, used by Republicans to tilt the playing field in favor of their candidates.

The court ordered Republicans to submit a new map. They went to court to fight the ruling. They lost.

Then they submitted a plan that was rejected by Gov. Wolf. Then several maps were submitted to the court. Eventually, the court issued its own map and ordered it be in place for the May 15 Primary Election.

Again Republicans sued. Twice. A group of Republican congressmen filed suit, as did Republican leaders in the state House and Senate. And again they lost.

This week two different sets of justices rejected both claims.

Unable to overturn the court’s ruling, a group of Republican state legislators is now looking to kill the messenger. Or, in this case, the group that created the new congressional map.

Twelve Republican legislators are pushing resolutions seeking to impeach the four Democratic justices on the state Supreme Court who authored the new map.

Republicans are objecting in part to the timing the justices used, squeezing the process of creating a new map into a short period of about three weeks.

But at the heart of the issue is their claim – which is not without merit – that this was a blatant example of judicial activism, that in effect the justices overstepped their bounds, since the state Constitution seems pretty clear in noting that drawing up congressional maps is a function of the Legislature, not the judicial branch.

“If we allow this to stand without taking action, the future courts are going to decide that the court has the ultimate ability to write law and they can turn around and cite this precedent where we’ve allowed it to occur with no repercussions on the court,” said the move’s prime sponsor, state Rep. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson.

The resolution seeks to start impeachment proceedings against Justices David Wecht, Debra Todd, Christine Donohue and Kevin Dougherty. All are Democrats and all voted in the majority in the 4-3 vote to toss out the old map. But Democrat Justice Max Baer joined two Republican justices in dissenting when it came to drawing up a new map.

Most experts believe the new map will give Democrats a much better chance of capturing several Congressional seats. Since the old map was put in place in 2011, Republicans have built a 13-5 dynasty in Congress.

Democrats have blasted the impeachment push as an “attack on the independence of every judge in our state,” according to House Democratic leader Frank Dermody of Allegheny County.

So far Republican leadership has not indicated if they will push the measure. We hope they don’t. The state constitution makes it clear impeachment is reserved “for any misbehavior in office.” Republicans may not agree with the ruling, but it hardly falls under the banner of misbehavior.

It’s just one more reminder of why politicians should not be involved in this process. Judges either for that matter. The old map was an atrocity. The new one is better, but the process used to put in place was not without its problems. But impeachment? Hardly. This was another branch of government exercising its powers and interpreting matters of law. Doesn’t sound like something impeachable to us. Nor, apparently, did it to the U.S. Supreme Court, which twice rejected the GOP claim. A separate group of federal judges, also rejected their argument.

Instead we wish our elected representatives would expedite the plan to set up an independent, non-partisan commission to handle the redistricting process every 10 years based on the latest census results.

We don’t want politicians doing it. They’ve proved they can’t resist the lure of gerrymandering the districts in their favor.

This time it fell into the lap of the judges, who came up with what is clearly a more fair map.

But it would be better if it never reached their docket at all.