Pennsylvania G.O.P.'s Push for More Power Over Judiciary Raises Alarms

[TexasTowelie]

When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state’s election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as “futile” and “a dangerous game.”

“It is not our role to lend legitimacy to such transparent and untimely efforts to subvert the will of Pennsylvania voters,” wrote Justice Wecht, a Democrat who was elected to a 10-year term on the bench in 2016. “Courts should not decide elections when the will of the voters is clear.”

Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way.

G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state’s election results to aid former President Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/us/politics/judicial-gerrymandering-pennsylvania.html

[Harker]

1. There's blood in the water, and sharks about. n/t

[Irish_Dem]

2. The judiciary stopped Trump's attempt to overturn the election.

So now the GOP will go after them.

[gab13by13]

3. What is worse,

is that Pa. is gerrymandered and they are working to redistrict even more. Luckily because of the lateness of the census they may be force to wait a while.

[DeminPennswoods]

4. For now, HB 38 is tabled

https://www.timesonline.com/story/news/2021/02/17/move-impose-election-district-pa-courts-hold-now/6771943002/

The constitutional amendment to have Pennsylvania appellate court judges elected by geographic districts rather than statewide won’t be on the May primary ballot, but nobody on either side thinks that it's a dead issue.