Senator Jay Costa, Pa. 43rd District v. Secretary Pedro A. Cortes

IN THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA Senator Jay Costa, Pa. 43rd District, : Senator Daylin Leach, Pa. 17th District, : in their Official Capacities, and : Senator Christine M. Tartaglione, : Pa. 2nd District, in her Official Capacity : and individually on behalf of : qualified electors in the : Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, : Petitioners : : v. : No. 251 M.D. 2016 : Secretary Pedro A. Cortes, : Senator Joseph B. Scarnati, : Pa. 25th District, and : Senator Jacob Corman III, : Pa. 34th District, each in their : Official Capacities, : Respondents : AMENDING ORDER NOW, this 28th day of April, 2016, the first paragraph on page 8 of the Court’s memorandum opinion filed April 20, 2016, is hereby AMENDED to provide as follows: In Mellow, this Court considered several challenges to two constitutional amendments approved by the electorate during the May 2001 Primary Election. In one of the challenges, the petitioners in that case contended that one of the amendments should be set aside because the joint resolutions passed in 1998 and 2000 by the General Assembly did not contain identical language. This Court rejected that argument, refusing to curb the General Assembly’s power under Article XI, section 1 beyond the express limits set forth in that constitutional provision. “Because Article XI does not require identical language or content in the resolutions (as opposed to the proposed amendment itself),” this Court opined, “there is no constitutional violation.” Mellow, 800 A.2d at 359 (emphasis in original). A corrected copy of the opinion and order is attached. _____________________________ P. KEVIN BROBSON, Judge