Am I missing something or didn’t SCOTUS already rule on this?
GOPissing in the wind.
They lost the underlying decision, but they are trying to punish the PA Supreme Court for doing the right thing. Being the white supremacist asshole party we are lucky Republicans haven’t sent out the boys in gray to arrest them damn Judges.
The map has typically given Republicans 13 out of 18 congressional seats, even as they have won around 50 percent of the statewide vote.
There’s nothing partisan about wanting the composition of the legislature to reflect election vote counts. That’s all that needs to be said to realize which side in this debate is being partisan.
SCOTUS just said that it’s not their place to adjudicate a state constitution issue. Impeachment by the state senate is also an internal state issue, so it’s not technically addressed by they SCOTUS either. We can read between the lines and see it’s just the GOP throwing a tantrum, but the SCOTUS didn’t directly rule on this issue.
Well, I’ll give them this, impeachment DOES need to be considered.
Removing justices would require a two-thirds vote in the state Senate, where Republicans control 34 of the 50 seats.
2/3 of 50 == 33. I.e., the GOP can do it.
“Removing justices would require a two-thirds vote in the state Senate, where Republicans control 34 of the 50 seats.” That’s exactly 2/3. Terrifying as it seems, they could in fact do this.
Ok, so if they do mange to pull off this political travesty, how are replacement judges installed? Appointment? By the Dem Governor? The GOP Senate? Elections?
But they all would have to vote as a bloc. And the most vulnerable ones can be promised a concentrated, furious attack with everything the state Dems have when they’re next up for re-election. Give them something to think about. That’s just off the top of my head.
They are elected by the people to ten-year terms.
So a special election? Could the impeached judges run again?
Put me in the GOP-are-fascists camp.
This kind of thing–see also the ongoing move in GA to cut voting hours in Atlanta from 8 to 7 pm–confirms my opinion that everything must be done to bring this party to its knees. Including gerrymanders of our own so long as the Supreme Court authorizes it. It’s a zero-sum game, at this point. Republicans will continue to play by different rules than Democrats until they are forced not to, either by the law or calculations of self-interest.
Pennsylvania – The Texas of the East.
The GOP acts as a party of totalitarianism, pure and simple.
Republicans: The Reason We Cannot Have Democracy.
They couldn’t win, so they try to cheat some more. They have no spines, they have no morals, they have nothing to offer.
I think this is less about the fact that they can be replaced and more about the idea that judges must toe the GOP line – or else. IOW, this is an overt threat to hijack democracy and replacing these judges with other qualified judges is not really a remedy for that.
I’d hope that the mere effort to do this will be met with a furious response.
Sure, generally. But you let vulnerable reps know we’ll give them some extra love and it might strike home.