PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday took control of a high-stakes redistricting lawsuit and will now decide how the state’s congressional districts will be drawn for the next decade.
A lower court had been poised to select a new map from among 13 proposals this week because the normal redistricting process between the governor and state Legislature had broken down. Now the high court will instead make the decision, exercising its “extraordinary jurisdiction” power to take over any case.
That will likely speed up the selection of a final map, which was the stated goal of the plaintiffs who asked the Supreme Court to step in. The clock is ticking — there are less than four months until the May 17 primary — and uncertainty around district boundaries has kept candidates, voters and elections administrators in limbo.
