A note to Pa. Republicans: Just because you can amend the state Constitution, it doesn’t mean you should | Opinion

By Patrick Beaty

It’s not easy making laws in Pennsylvania. The state House of Representatives wants you to know that, so they published a booklet called “Making Law Pennsylvania” to help citizens understand how it’s done.

Page three includes an explanation of the separation of powers:

[T]he General Assembly can enact law only with the participation of the Governor, who heads the Executive Branch. The Governor can reject a proposed law by using a veto; however, the General Assembly can override the veto if it has enough votes. In this way, power is evenly distributed, or balanced, between the House and the Senate and between the General Assembly and the Executive Branch. These constitutional safeguards are some of the famous ‘checks and balances’ you probably first learned about in school.

That sounds like a nice summary of how the legislative process is supposed to work in Harrisburg. Unfortunately, some of our state legislators might need to go to summer school to relearn their “checks and balances.”

Last week Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a massive election law rewrite bill (House Bill 1300) which had passed the General Assembly with the support of most Republicans and almost no Democrats. Without Democratic votes, there is no way for Republicans to override Wolf’s veto. As we learned in school, that means the bill is dead, right? Not so fast.

Some of our elected representatives think they know another way to enact laws that bypasses those pesky checks and balances. They now want to amend the State Constitution because – guess what? – the Governor doesn’t get to veto constitutional amendments.

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Instead, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate can pass a bill with no support among Democrats and then it goes to the voters for a final vote. This process is lengthy because the same bill must first pass in two consecutive sessions of the legislature.

But Republicans may be willing to play the long game if it means they can enact new voter ID requirements or repeal the mail-in voting law they enacted with bi-partisan support just two years ago.

Republican lawmakers defend this end-run around the Governor by saying they just want to “let the voters decide.”

But wait, who gets to decide which issues should go before the voters and which ones must follow the normal legislative process we all learned about in school? Turns out it’s the same legislators who failed their lesson on checks and balances.

More importantly, let’s not forget the state Constitution is the foundation of our rights as citizens and, as stated in Article I, Section 2 of that document: “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety and happiness.”

We the people gave the General Assembly limited authority to enact laws that do not conflict with our fundamental rights. We did not say they could abuse our Constitution to enact partisan laws for their own political benefit.

So, here’s the first lesson Republican lawmakers need to learn this summer. If the Constitution doesn’t seem to allow something that would benefit the people – let’s say, an Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission for example – then it might be a good idea to change the Constitution.

But if our Constitution does not prohibit what you want to accomplish, then leave it alone and stick with the legislative process we learned about in school. If you can’t get the governor’s support to change the law, and you don’t have the votes to override his veto, that only means the constitutional checks and balances are working just fine.

Class dismissed.

Patrick Beaty is the legislative director for Fair Districts PA, an all-volunteer, non-partisan, grass roots organization dedicated to reform of Pennsylvania’s redistricting process for both congressional and state legislative districts. For more information, visit https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/