On Monday, a Pennsylvania court dismissed a challenge to how lawmakers bundled together five prospective state constitutional amendments, including one pertaining to abortion, on the grounds that the dispute was not ready for judicial review.
The five-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court stated that judges were not rendering judgment on the proposed amendments, which Republican leaders pushed through both chambers of the legislature during the November session.
Another round of General Assembly approval is still required, and Judge Lori Dumas wrote that the court did not wish to become embroiled in an abstract dispute with no apparent concrete repercussions.
“If every claimed misstep in the constitutional amendment process resulted in a lawsuit, then the potential exists for protracted, piecemeal litigation, which could potentially conflict with election-related deadlines,” she said in an 11-page order.
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Before a referendum can be held in Pennsylvania, constitutional amendments must be passed by both chambers in two consecutive two-year sessions. Unlike other types of legislation, the governor has no role.
The court denied the legal challenge launched against the General Assembly by Democratic then-Governor Tom Wolf and Leigh Chapman, his acting secretary of state. Wolf, who was succeeded in governor in January by fellow Democrat Josh Shapiro, had argued that the bundling violated state constitutional requirements that prohibit mixing changes with numerous, unrelated themes.
One proposed amendment would state that the Pennsylvania Constitution does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion or public funding of abortions, which Wolf argued was “deceptively complex” and should necessitate two separate votes on the right to an abortion and public funding. Others in the package would require all voters to present identification, allow gubernatorial candidates to choose their own running mates, give legislators a way to cancel regulations without a veto, and establish state auditor audits of elections.
It is uncertain whether the necessary support for the amendments exists in the current Legislature, as the state House has since flipped from a Republican majority to a one-seat Democratic margin.
In January, the Republicans, who still hold a solid majority in the state Senate, forced through a different version of the bundled amendments in the first significant vote of the session. This bill addressed voter identification and the authority of the governor over regulations, and it added an amendment that had previously passed both chambers separately, giving victims of child sexual abuse a second opportunity to prosecute their abusers. Abortion, running companions, and audits of elections were not included in the new amendment package.
