It’s like a guy who’s upset at being divorced so he stalks his ex-wife. You want to explain to him that even if it feels satisfying in the moment it’s pretty much the exact opposite of moving on with your life in a constructive, positive way.
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I remember that. Never seen such absolute fury; it was like the French Revolution.
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This is the new Republican party - there simply are no rules anymore.
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Don’t ever forget the Republicans know they can’t win unless they suppress votes or cheat.
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GOPoopers have a tantrum .
This is how __ I __ would handle the situation
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The court should have given them more time to draw a map.
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__ if __ the pa house actually votes to impeach then any citizen or the pa attorney general bring a court case because they have __ clearly __ violated the oath of office.
Because the pa house or senate would not be the right place to hold impeachment proceedings create a __ temporary __ panel of 60 judges from the districts (counties) of pennsylvania courts of common pleas.
However
Since this is a partisan (party) issue __ consider __ having 2 more democrats then gop.
Have a federal judge act as the judge for the panel.
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__ if __ the panel __ fires __ them, they are __ automatically __ put on the 2020 ballot however they still have to campaign to get elected.
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How to replace the legislators
Since __ each __ covers a geographic area select a __ randomly __ chosen elected __ democratic (consider it a penalty for breaking the “Oath of office”) to move up.
could this be what they are really afraid of? I think this needs to happen.
Yeah, I don’t see every single one voting to do this…for many of the reasons mentioned above. Fail!
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Appointing a fresh batch of justices until the next election is problematic.
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What about the impeached judges? Their careers are now over, for political reasons? No pensions? What kind of chilling effect will that have on the court?
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There’s no guarantee that the new nominees will be accepted by the PA Senate (if that’s how it works). Particularly if the nominees are asked whether or not they support the redistricting decision.
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What happens to the appointees at the next election? They run for office against their impeached colleagues?
It doesn’t work. Wolf is better off not nominating anyone. I’m not sure that court would even be able to function at that point.
The only thing that works is taking control of the PA Senate and House asap. Don’t know how easy that will be.
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The timing of elections is prescribed in statutes. It takes time to prepare for elections – candidates have to know the districts so they can collect petition signatures, pay the filing fees, even decide which district to run in – clerks have to prepare ballots, program the optical scanners, etc. These things take time. Remember, the date of the primary election is fixed by statute. There was no more time to give them to draw new districts. We saw how they used the time they were given. What makes you think that giving them more time would help? Besides, they created the problem by drawing a blatantly partisan map. I don’t see any dire need to give the malfeasors more time to play silly appeals court games. Fix the problem, and fix it NOW. If you don’t fix the problem NOW, we will fix the problem without your input.
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Exactly how have the assembly members violated their oath of office? One of the powers granted to them is the power of impeachment. The Pennsylvania Constitution does not lay out detailed guidelines about impeachable offenses (in fact, all it says is, “The House of Representatives shall hold the sole power of impeachment.”) In a subsequent section about who is liable to impeachment it says, “The Governor and all other civil officers shall be liable to impeachment for any misbehavior in office…” That’s it. The oath of office is the usual promise to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and to “…discharge the duties of my office with fidelity.” I don’t see that it’s clear that impeaching the justices violates their oath of office. I think it’s a violation of the oath of office, because it is a failure of that last clause of the oath.
The PA Supreme Court was caught between a rock and a hard place. The map as it stood was unconstitutional, which means that it’s illegitimate and someone has to draw a new map before the next election. They gave the assembly an opportunity to draw a new map, but required that the Governor approve the map. They didn’t draw a new map acceptable to anyone but themselves.
Someone had to draw a new map. The assembly won’t draw a new map. I suppose they could have done something really novel like requiring all Congresscritters to be elected at-large until new maps were drawn in 2021, but that would have been a longer reach (IMO) than hiring a demographer from far away to draw a new district map.
The thing I don’t understand is why the Congressional map is unconstitutional but the assembly maps are. It’s pretty clear that the House and Senate are as gerrymandered as the Congressional districts.
When did the guillotine come out in PA? How did I miss that bit of news?
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Well, I don’t think that was at issue in this particular case. There is a “bipartisan” effort currently underway that would require amending the state constitution. This is being considered in the state senate and would face more resistance in the House. I couldn’t find any articles on pending court cases.
But the focus should be on a bipartisan-sponsored bill (Senate Bill 22) from Sens. Lisa Boscola (D., Lehigh) and Mario Scavello (R., Monroe).
It, along with a mirror-bill in the House (House Bill 722), sponsored by Rep. Steve Samuelson (D., Northampton) with more than 100 bipartisan co-sponsors, would allow a citizens commission to draw lines for both legislative and congressional districts.
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Me thinks the current GOP really doesn’t get it. The taxpayers can only be roiled but so much. Tom Corbett was sent out the door because he chose to gut social service programs and education. He was not protected by gerrymandering.
The second time around may not be any prettier. 
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Trying to impeach the judges for trying to create a fair map would mean that the legislators are failing to uphold their oath (follow rulings of the courts).
It is the legislators that might be __ fired __ not the judges.
Just in case what I wrote was confusing.
It puts the Democrats in a difficult position in the following sense.
We want the party to set an example of honest, decent, normal governance - but Republicans are counting on the Democrats to play by the rules, while they break them all. That’s what gives them their maximum advantage, and the the notion that they need an example of good governance to follow, etc. is ridiculous.
They only care about power and partisan advantage. Noting else matters.
Since Democratic values and policies are actually what the majority of Americans support, simply enforcing a level playing field and a fair game means the Democrats win.
But the Democrats are being forced to fight fire with fire. We cannot get to the situation where fair play triumphs until Republican power is destroyed. So first we must fight the war to win. We do not need to sink their abysmal level, but we do need to take the fight to them and cut the Republicans out of power where ever possible.We need to think clearly about the next rules the Republicans are going to break, and beat them to the punch.
Remember - the Very Serious People, the MSM, the Punditocracy, the Inside the Beltway crowd are going to say “both sides do it” anyway. We don’t get brownie points for being honest losers.
Sure we do. But they are, like, brownie points.
Maths is hard.
HOPEFULLY I do not need to add this (because you already know it) BUT I feel better saying it anyway.
Impeaching the judges __ WHEN THEY DID NOT VIOLATE __ THEIR __ OATHS OF OFFICE IS WRONG __ AND THE LEGISLATORS WHO VOTE TO IMPEACH SHOULD BE FIRED.
WHILE everything you said in point 1 is TRUE __ I THINK THIS WORK AROUND WILL BE OK UNTIL THE NEXT ELECTION.
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THE Group of people who wish to be REPRESENTATIVES meet at a school / church / theater.
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They draw cards from a 52 deck pack of cards.
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If you need to do a second draw THEN DO IT.
NOW YOU HAVE ONE PERSON IN THE OFFICE FOR 2 YEARS __ OR __ UNTIL A SPECIAL ELECTION CAN BE HELD.
Read your (I am assuming that you are a PA resident) state’s Constitution. That is where the rules for this sort of thing are laid out. We don’t play ad hoc games – like draw a name from a hat among the interested citizens.
If the Pennsylvania Commonwealth’s Constitution allowed for recall (it does not), then that would be your opportunity to fire the idiots behind the bill of impeachment. Because it does not your next opportunity to fire them comes when he (I believe this pack are all males) stands for reelection.
That’s it. And to be completely honest, I find your proposal more abhorrent than the move to impeach the judges. Your proposal is a big step down the road to anarchy. (By the way, just in case it is unclear, the move to impeach these judges is itself abhorrent to me.)
If you don’t like the options presented to you, then organize. Run for office – get people to back you, and change the constitution. If you can get enough people to back you, then you can implement any cockamamie idea that doesn’t violate the supremacy clause of the US Constitution. (For the record, I don’t think your particular cockamamie idea violates the supremacy clause, so go for it.)