Who says you can't fight City Hall?
Don't tell that to the League of Women Voters who took one look at the state's reconfigured Congressional districts after the 2010 census and smelled a rat.
Actually, what they smelled was politics. It's called gerrymandering. And in Pennsylvania it's something of an art form.
The state Legislature performs the redistricting process every 10 years after the latest census. Not surprisingly, the party that controls the Legislature uses that political clout to bend the new boundaries in ways that help their candidates.
As it happens Republicans have controlled things in Harrisburg for some time. But make no mistake, both parties are more than willing to take part in this kind of political shenanigans.
The result is comical, if it were not so politically malevolent.
Just take a glance at the state's now-infamous 7th District, which used to pretty much adhere to Delaware County and some contiguous surrounding turf.
Now the 7th District has been contorted into an almost unrecognizable shape, taking in parts of five suburban counties. Its bizarre shape sparked one national publication to dub it "Goofy kicking Donald Duck."
The League went to court seeking to have the map tossed out, claiming it was blatantly political.
And they got a Commonwealth Court judge to agree with them. But while noting the last redistricting process was dripping with partisan flavor in an effort to favor Republicans, the judge ruled it was not unconstitutional.
Monday the state Supreme Court disagreed.
The court, which by the way is dominated 5-2 by Democrats, agreed with the League, and the lower court judge - but tossed out the maps and ordered the state Legislature to draw up new maps.
They have until early February to do so and submit it to Gov. Tom Wolf. And if they don't the high court said they would do it themselves.
It's a huge victory for everyone who believes that every vote should count, and that partisan politics should not be a part of the process, in effect deciding races long before voters can even enter their polling places.
You can get all the details here.
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