Several Republican legislators in Pennsylvania filed resolutions [text] on Tuesday to impeach Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices Max Baer, David Wecht, Debra Todd, Christine Donohue, and Kevin Dougherty [official profiles]. The resolutions claim that the Justices should be impeached due to misbehavior in office.
The resolutions were filed following a memorandum submitted by Pennsylvania House member Cris Dush [official website] in February. The memorandum claimed that an order [JURIST report] of the court undermined legislative and executive veto powers established in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in Article IV, Section 15 [text].
The order called into question came out of a redistricting case decided earlier this year, League of Women Voters of PA, et. al. v. The Commonwealth of PA, et. al [opinion, pdf]. The court had declared the Congressional Redistricting Act of 2011 [text] unconstitutional in violation of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The per curiam opinion stated that the previous redistricting process resulted in a significant benefit to the republican party who were in control of that process in 2011. The court then ordered that the Pennsylvania General Assembly draft a new congressional districting plan that comports with the Pennsylvania constitution. Challenges to the court’s decision were denied [JURIST report] by the US Supreme Court and a Pennsylvania federal district court last week.