Senator Joe Scarnati is appealing a federal judge’s order that he personally pay nearly $30,000 to reimburse lawyers who successfully challenged the state’s congressional districts by saying they were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
US District Judge Michael Baylson found that Scarnati improperly tried to move the legal challenge from state court to federal court last fall, adding that the attempt violated procedural rules, and that other defendants hadn’t agreed to it.
Scarnati appealed the order this week to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Scarnati’s chief of staff Drew Crompton says the attempt to move the case was based on the recommendations of a number of private lawyers. Crompton added that assessing personal liability in governmental legal decisions is absurd and could interfere with good-faith litigation.