We’ve got a potential constitutional crisis boiling in Pennsylvania right now. In the wake of the US Supreme Court today allowing the PA redistricting to continue, Keystone Progress is reporting that Rep. Cris Dash (PA-66) is calling on other legislators to co-sponsor the impeachment of the 5 judges that signed the order to redistrict the state. This is very serious and resembles situations usually found in overtly authoritarian regimes. It’s a developing story and will be updated as new information becomes available.
In the meantime, by all means, call this guy’s office and give him hell.
Rep. Chris Dush: 814-849-8008
814 938-4225
717 787-3845
UPDATE 1: Here is a video from this afternoon of him calling on beginning the articles of impeachment.
UPDATE 2: Aaron Anthony — Candidate for US Congress (PA-12 against Keith Rothfus) — has just released a statement:
“It is not hyperbole to suggest that what Mr. Dush is proposing is a threat to our democracy. Americans everywhere are sitting at their dinner table wondering where we draw the line in the march towards authoritarianism. This is the line. This is the point that we say enough is enough and flip every district of every state or federal Representative that even whispers anti-democratic ideas like this. Even if Rep. Dush’s preposterous memo goes nowhere, enough is enough. Tomorrow we take back our country.”
UPDATE 3: Here is some more detail from the Post-Gazette. It’s strange that the impeachment bit was somewhat buried in the article.
As Mr. Scarnati and Mr. Turzai defended the current map that led to the election of Republicans to the same 13 seats in all three congressional races since the map’s creation -- in 2011 -- a rank-and-file Republican issued a memo seeking co-sponsors for a bill that would seek the impeachment of the five Democratic justices who declared the maps unconstitutional.
"We're not going to sit on the sidelines," said Rep. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson, who circulated the memo.
It's unclear exactly how far the attempt to impeach the justices will go. Mr. Dush said in an interview that he expects to introduce legislation that will move quickly through committee. But House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, said Republican leaders in the House had not yet discussed the effort.
UPDATE 4: The national press has picked up on this finally. Articles can be found everywhere like this one from the Huffington Post that reminds us that the process of impeaching a PA State Supreme Court Justice has only been used once — for a known felon. Meanwhile, with the exception of impeachment, Republicans have been quiet on what they might do or how they might approach this in the next 3 days despite having “ come up with some hypothetical maps.”
