PA Supreme Court strikes down PA legislative map.

[muon2]

Massachusetts has its primaries for Congress and state offices in September even though Presidential primaries and town elections are in the spring. I've never understood why exactly.

I think it's actually quite sensible. There is no good reason to have more than 3 months between party nomination and general election. Town elections usually don't require primaries, and in states where they do they are typically a couple of months before the general election. Presidential delegate selection is not the nomination, but is the prerequisite to the nomination.

[muon2]

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The PA supremes decided on their own just how you balance the state law on minimizing the division of political jurisdictions against the Baker v Carr equal population Constitutional mandate, and came up with a 0.5% deviation standard, or came up with no standard, and just did what felt right, or what?  Yes, it seems the federal courts will throw this one out in a hurry. They may even uphold the map that was drawn by the Commission, if it otherwise minimized divisions subject to getting equal - or more equal - populations.

Other states' courts have interpreted constitutional language for substantially equal in population to mean something more restrictive than SCOTUS. In IL the court determined that it means a maximum deviation of 0.5%, but it hasn't come into play since the party with the pen draws exactly equal districts to avoid a legal challenge on that point.