CASE SUMMARY

On February 15, 2022 a group of Pennsylvania voters filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court challenging the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission's adopted legislative plan as violating the state constitution. The petitioners' claims centered around Butler County, which they asserted was wrongfully divided into four state House districts and joined with neighboring counties despite Butler County having sufficient population to create three state House districts wholly contained within its borders. They claimed the Commission subordinated the state's neutral redistricting criteria of compactness, contiguity, and minimizing political subdivision splits in order to secure an unfair partisan advantage and protect incumbents in violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution's Free and Equal Elections Clause. Additionally, they asserted Butler County's divisions violated the state constitution's criteria requiring the minimization of subdivision splits under article II, § 16 and further resulted in the denial of proper representation for the voters of Butler County in violation article I, § 26. They sought a court order adopting a new 2022 elections calendar to allow time to adjudicate their challenge to the final legislative plan and an order striking down the final plan and adopting the Commission's preliminary legislative redistricting plan instead.

On March 16, 2022 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued an order upholding the adopted legislative plan as constitutional and dismissing all of the petitions challenging it.

CASE LIBRARY

Pennsylvania Supreme Court - No. 4 WM 2022

Covert v. 2021 Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Comm'n
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