PHILADELPHIA – All three of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who sought reelection Tuesday will get another term, ensuring Democratic jurists keep their majority on the presidential battleground state\u2019s highest court \u2014 one at the center of pivotal fights over voting rights, redistricting and elections.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The result shapes the makeup of the seven-member court through the next presidential election in 2028. The three justices had been elected as Democrats, and voters were deciding whether to extend the court\u2019s Democratic majority. Rejecting all three could have plunged the court into a partisan deadlock if the state\u2019s politically divided government were to be unable to agree on temporary appointees to fill in.<\/p>\n
Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht won new terms.<\/p>\n
All three were running in what is called a retention election<\/a>, in which voters are asked to vote “yes” or “no” on whether to give current justices another term. They were not identified by party on the ballot. Terms are 10 years, though age limits can shorten that time on the bench.<\/p>\n Donohue will only serve two more years as she is subject to\u00a0a mandatory retirement rule<\/a> once she turns 75 in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reelecting them extends the Democratic majority \u2014 currently 5-2 \u2014 on a court that has been at the center of pivotal fights over voting rights, redistricting and elections.<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n The court could again be called on to settle partisan battles over election laws ahead of next year\u2019s midterm contests to decide the governor\u2019s office and the U.S. House majority. Democrats need to gain just three seats in the 2026 elections to take control of the House.<\/p>\n Traditionally, a retention campaign is an under-the-radar election. But in an era of increasingly polarized judicial elections, Republicans mounted a late-emerging campaign to defeat the justices. Democrats marshaled a reelection campaign with their allies, and received help from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Defeating all three could have left the bench in a partisan 2-2 stalemate for two years, including through next year\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n In recent years, the court has made major decisions around voting and elections, necessitated in part by a politically divided<\/a> and often stalemated state government.<\/p>\n The justices in 2018 threw out<\/a> a GOP-drawn map of Pennsylvania\u2019s congressional districts as unconstitutionally gerrymandered and, four years later, again picked new boundaries<\/a> after a stalemate in government.<\/p>\n The court turned away GOP challenges<\/a> to Pennsylvania\u2019s expansive vote-by-mail law, which became a focal point of Republican efforts to overturn President Donald Trump\u2019s loss<\/a> to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Republican justices dissented.<\/p>\n The justices also rendered verdicts in cases involving abortion rights and public school funding.<\/p>\n The Source: This article contains information from the Associated Press and previous FOX 29 reporting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvania<\/a>Pennsylvania Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA – All three of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices who sought reelection Tuesday will get another term,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[139,539,8347,28,30,29,50,593],"class_list":["post-25524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-news","tag-pa","tag-pa-politics","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-politics","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}