Republican state lawmakers aim to change Pennsylvania’s constitution

ORDINARILY THE swearing-in of elected lawmakers in Pennsylvania’s state House is a formality. Pictures are taken. There is lots of smiling and shaking of hands. This year was different. A brawl nearly erupted when Jake Corman, the Republican president pro tempore of the state Senate, refused to swear in Jim Brewster, a Democrat who had just been re-elected. John Fetterman, the Democratic lieutenant-governor and Senate president, objected to the refusal. The Senate Republicans then voted to remove Mr Fetterman, who was presiding over the session, and replaced him with Mr Corman. In footage of the vote Mr Fetterman sounded incredulous and then irate. At first, he refused to give up his gavel. At one point both men attempted to recognise motions from the floor. Mr Fetterman called this “a fundamental assault on democracy”, where the people’s will and the courts were ignored because one party did not like the result. Tom Wolf, the (Democratic) governor, described it as a “shameful power grab”.