PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania Republicans are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and threatening to impeach the state’s supreme court after the body approved a redrawn electoral map that heavily favors Democrats.

Late Wednesday, Pennysylvania’s House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati submitted an emergency request to nation’s highest court requesting a block on implementing the new lines drawn by the state court.

“The Pennsylvania Supreme Court conspicuously seized the redistricting process and prevented any meaningful ability for the legislature to enact a remedial map to ensure a court drawn map,” they wrote in their request.

Turzai and Scarnati said their argument was based on the state court’s violation of the U.S. Constitution by legislating from the bench.

National Republicans are also expected to challenge the court-drawn maps. And national Democrats may challenge that challenge. Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general who is leading a well-funded group called The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which is supported by former President Barack Obama, has been strident in its support for the new map.

The committee has announced that Pennsylvania is on their ‘electoral target list’ for 2018.

In Harrisburg, state Rep. Cris Dush has begun circulating a memo seeking support for articles of impeachment, arguing the five Democratic justices who signed the order to overturn the seven-year-old map contradicted the plain language of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

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