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GOP chief justice slams Republican judicial impeachment move

Jeremy Drey/AOPC

GOP chief justice slams Republican judicial impeachment move

HARRISBURG — The chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said Thursday that he is "very concerned" about an effort to impeach his four colleagues who voted to overturn the state's congressional district map and impose a new one.

"Threats of impeachment directed against Justices because of their decision in a particular case are an attack upon an independent judiciary, which is an essential component of our constitutional plan of government," Chief Justice Thomas Saylor said in a statement.

Justice Saylor, elected to the court as a Republican, dissented from the majority in the case.

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State Rep. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, introduced Tuesday four resolutions seeking to impeach Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, Debra Todd and David Wecht, who ran as Democrats. The four overturned the prior congressional map on the grounds it was a partisan gerrymander designed to favor Republicans and imposed a new one in time for the upcoming May 15 primary.

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Rep. Dush spared Justice Max Baer, a Democrat who agreed the old map was unconstitutional but disagreed with the process for imposing a new one, and Justices Saylor and Sallie Updyke Mundy, Republicans who dissented from the court's order.

It's unclear how far the impeachment effort will go. Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, said earlier in the week: "We will have to review the evidence and check whether all of the leaders and 102 members of the House want to pursue that remedy. It is not a decision to be made lightly, and we have not had those discussions."

First Published: March 22, 2018, 7:04 p.m.
Updated: March 22, 2018, 7:04 p.m.

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Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor  (Jeremy Drey/AOPC)
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