Congressman Rothfus Released the Following Statement After Joining Colleagues in Federal Lawsuit Against PA Supreme Court Map
Pittsburgh – Congressman Keith Rothfus issued the following statement after joining several of his colleagues in requesting that the Federal district court in Harrisburg enjoin the Pennsylvania Supreme Court map, which was imposed in a 4-3 vote, from being used in the 2018 election because such map does not conform with the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.
“The partisan map issued by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is causing mass confusion among the residents of southwestern Pennsylvania. My office is currently working to resolve constituent casework for more than 300 people whose cases could be delayed for months bogged down in federal bureaucracy.
“Liberal activist judges and a liberal Stanford professor from California with no knowledge of my district even split the community of greater Johnstown, separating the city of Johnstown from regional assets, including the Johnstown Airport, the University of Pittsburgh Johnstown campus and Penn Highlands Community College, into separate congressional districts. They did this with absolutely no input from the citizens of the region. This will impede critical federal, state and local coordination for a community working to continue its economic recovery. No legislature, Republican or Democrat, would have done this to Johnstown. Constituent input is essential in such a process, which is why the Federal Constitution delegates, expressly and exclusively, the redistricting responsibility to the state legislature. The mass confusion and chaos caused by the court’s misguided actions is completely unacceptable.”