Revised Pa. congressional map kept in place
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court is keeping in place a revised map of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts, turning down a request from Republican leaders in the state Legislature.
The court’s order Monday declining to put on hold the revised map comes as incumbents and potential challengers are circulating petitions to get on the May primary ballot.
The court is declining to halt a series of decisions by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that threw out a 2011 Republican-crafted map and established a new map of the state’s 18 districts.
Pennsylvania’s 2011 map is generally considered among the most gerrymandered in the nation, and Democrats hope new district lines will boost their chances of reclaiming majority control of the U.S. House.
Court won’t upend Arizona licenses for immigrants
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is rejecting Arizona’s plea to stop issuing driver’s licenses to young immigrants known as “Dreamers” who are protected from deportation.
The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place an appeals’ court decision in favor of the immigrants who sought licenses.
About 20,000 young immigrants in Arizona are protected from deportation under a 2012 program started by the Obama administration. The Trump administration is trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but has been blocked by federal courts.
The high court recently turned down an administration request to take on the DACA controversy.
Arizona sought to prevent DACA-protected immigrants from getting licenses. Then-Gov. Jan Brewer cited a desire to reduce the risk of licenses being used to improperly access public benefits.
Justices reject challenge to Arizona death penalty law
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is rejecting a challenge to Arizona’s death penalty law.
The justices on Monday let stand the convictions and death sentences of Abel Daniel Hidalgo. He’s in a federal prison in Arizona serving life sentences for two other killings committed on an Indian reservation in Idaho.
Hidalgo says the law doesn’t sufficiently narrow eligibility for a death sentence.
Arizona law includes 14 aggravating circumstances that prosecutors can put forward to justify a death sentence. Jurors then deliberate between a sentence of death or life in prison.
The court’s four more liberal justices say they would be willing to take up the issue Hidalgo raised but in a different case in which lower courts could more thoroughly explore it first.
