U.S. Supreme Court rejects another GOP appeal over changes to congressional map

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to consider another appeal by Republican state lawmakers over this year’s changes to Pennsylvania’s congressional district map.

With the way the old districts were drawn in 2011, Republicans had such a substantial advantage that they captured nearly three-quarters of the state’s congressional delegation with a far smaller share of statewide votes – in some years, fewer than half.

These lopsided results ultimately prompted lawsuits in 2017.

And, in January, the state Supreme Court overturned that map, deeming it an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. It then had its own expert draw up a new one that’s considered more competitive overall.

Republicans responded by trying to get a stay on the decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of preventing the new map from being in place for midterms coming up next week.

Those attempts failed.

This most recent attempt sought to get the nation’s top court to consider the matter before the 2020 election cycle.

That was rejected on Monday.