Redistricting in Pennsylvania: The Past, Present & Future
Ever since there have been legislatures, there have been complaints and controversies about legislative districts. Pennsylvania in 2021 is no different. What has changed is the legal framework and public understanding of our decennial district-drawing, courtesy of the state Supreme Court, whose Democratic majority “redrew” the map in 2017 and 2018 for the first time in the Commonwealth’s history.
In a brand-new white paper report, available for download, the Southeastern Pennsylvania-based media publication and think tank Broad + Liberty tracks the history of redistricting, its present controversies, and the future of representative democracy (and checks and balances) in the Keystone State.
In the 2018 case of League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v. Commonwealth, the state Supreme Court held that Pennsylvania’s 2011 redistricting plan violated the state constitution’s guarantee of “free and equal” elections, a novel interpretation of a clause that has, in some form, been in the state’s constitution since 1776. No court had ever imagined that this meant the legislature could not draw district lines according to its own judgment, but between a Democratic court and a Republican legislature, law and history gave way to partisan jockeying and political advantage.
This partisan decision purported to lay out neutral principles that in practice kneecapped the Republican-held General Assembly. Indeed, in relying on the shifting pseudo-“science of redistricting,” compactness and consideration for communities (the heart of the legal challenge) have actually become less popular with Democrats, who realize that simple districts with normal shapes actually could hurt a party that increasingly clusters in Pennsylvania's cities. These are among the many topics discussed in this three-part report, whose first portion, covering Pennsylvania’s colonial history to the 2010s, is available free with registration.
Read the full report here.
Findings:
- Out of the academic talk of “neutral map-drawers” and “relying on experts,” and media cheerleading for court activism, comes an ever more partisan redistricting process which will impact communities across the Commonwealth.
- On many issues, from splitting “communities of interest” to majority-minority district drawing, the two parties’ stances have switched entirely.
- In fact, this map example would adhere to the tenets established by the Democratic majority on the state Supreme Court and the rules that “independent” left-leaning groups have pushed — but still yield a Republican majority.
- One suspects that in drawing districts and judging political representation, there have never been any neutral principles — only partisan advantage.
Read the full report here.
