Penn. Supreme Court Judge Failed To Disclose Donation From GOP Defendant In Gerrymandering Suit
A Republican Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice failed to disclose a $25,000 campaign donation from a top Republican lawmaker who is a defendant in a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander.
Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy filed an updated disclosure in the case on Monday, noting the $25,000 donation during her Supreme Court candidacy from a PAC supporting Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati. She apologized for failing to disclose the money before the Supreme Court heard the lawsuit, and said she still believes she can judge the litigation impartially.
Mundy was one of two GOP justices who disagreed when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court majority struck down the state’s congressional map in January and ordered a new one.
Her failure to disclose the donation, first reported by Mother Jones, is the latest in an escalating fight over the gerrymandering decision that challenges the impartiality of the justices on Pennsylvania’s highest court. On Friday, House Speaker Michael Turzai (R) and Scarnati moved to disqualify the vote of Justice David Wecht, a Democrat, because he made statements against gerrymandering when he was a candidate in 2015.
Plaintiffs in the gerrymandering case won’t seek to disqualify Mundy’s vote over the donation disclosure, said Barbara Grimaldi, a spokeswoman for the Public Interest Law Center, a Philadelphia-based group representing them.
Scarnati said in a statement Monday that he and Mundy had properly disclosed the donation from his PAC in campaign finance reports. He also said three Democrats on the Supreme Court failed to disclose contributions from a PAC supporting Gov. Tom Wolf (D), who also is a defendant in the gerrymandering case. Those justices ― Wecht, Kevin Dougherty and Christine Donohue ― also did not disclose millions in donations from labor unions that filed amicus briefs in this case, Scarnati said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pennsylvania-judge-gerrymandering-lawsuit_us_5a787b05e4b0905433b6cf0c
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