HARRISBURG, Pa. _ A panel of federal judges Monday dismissed a lawsuit challenging the new congressional map imposed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, ending one of two challenges to the map and increasing the chances it will stand for the looming elections.
It was a loss for Republican lawmakers who had sought a preliminary injunction to block the map from being used for the primary election in May and general election in November.
The Republicans _ eight Pennsylvania congressmen and two state Senate leaders _ had asked the court to reuse the previous map, adopted in 2011, for one more election cycle while the new map was challenged in the courts.
A similar legal challenge, filed by top Republicans in the state House and Senate, is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania congressional candidates have begun campaigning as if the new map will remain in place.
The District Court case was filed last month by a group of Republican lawmakers who argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, overstepped its bounds when it threw out the old congressional map and imposed a new one.
The state Supreme Court had just a month earlier tossed out the previous congressional map, saying it was designed to favor Republicans and violated the state constitution. Under that old map, Republicans won the same 13 out of 18 seats in every race since it was enacted.
The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 split, set one deadline for the legislature to submit a new map for consideration and another deadline for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to review it. Top leaders in the state House and Senate, without taking a vote in their chambers, submitted one map to Wolf, which he rejected.
The state Supreme Court then imposed a new map that many outside experts said still gave Republicans an edge but created more competitive districts and some more districts that are expected to favor Democrats.
The Republicans who filed this latest challenge in District Court said the state Supreme Court did not give the legislature enough time to draw a new map and, by imposing its own, violated the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives state legislatures authority over elections.
At a hearing earlier this month in Harrisburg, the judges hearing the District Court case grilled attorneys as they tried to determine whether intervening to block the new map would sow more chaos.
Reverting to the previous map would require the state to use a congressional map that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said was unconstitutional. But the federal court is being asked to review whether the state Supreme Court itself overstepped and violated the U.S. Constitution.
The judges also seemed to be debating whether they should intervene at all, given the similar challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court. Political observers are anxiously awaiting word from Justice Samuel Alito about whether the court will take up the case and block the map's use for 2018.
"If the ice cream's melting on the dot, you have Justice Alito considering the ... request," Chief U.S. District Judge Christopher Conner said during the Friday hearing.
