News & Brews December 22 2021

For more than two years, a proposed victims’ rights amendment to our state constitution has been in limbo pending a legal challenge arguing that the amendment goes beyond a single topic. Yesterday, our state Supreme Court agreed with the challenge, ruling 6-1 thatthe amendment, known as Marsy’s Law, which includes 15 rights for victims, violates the requirement that amendments address only a single topic. Read the majority opinion here and the dissent here.

Pennsylvania is among 17 states that lost population from 2020-2021, according to new population estimates released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to the estimates, from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2021, we saw a numeric decline of 25,569 people, ranking us 6th in the top 10 states for numeric declines. Meanwhile, the top 10 states for numeric growth were Texas, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nevada. We also were second only to Florida in the highest natural population decrease (meaning there were more deaths than births). Our decrease here stood at 30,878. Click here for more from the Census Bureau.

In your “Amen, Brother!” read of the day, Sen. Mike Regan writes in Broad + Liberty that our state-run liquor system is a relic of prohibition that serves to fill the coffers of a union leader and many politicians while keeping companies out of PA and driving residents across state lines to buy liquor. The solution? You guessed it. Get government out of the booze business.

Despite their questionable headlines (see this past Monday’s News & Brews), Spotlight PA has a search tool that lets you enter your address to see your current and proposed new state House and Senate districts. Check it out here. The new districts are preliminary only and are undergoing a 30-day comment period, after which a legal challenge is possible.

He hasn’t officially announced for U.S. Senate yet, but hedge fund CEO David McCormick is introducing himself to Pennsylvania voters. The Washington Examiner shared McCormick’s first ad, along with why he’s considering running for Senate.

The York Daily Record caught up with Gov. Wolf to talk about his COVID strategy, his 2022 agenda, and his plans after leaving office. The story is paywalled, but basically, his COVID strategy is vaccines, his 2022 agenda is more money for education and using the American Rescue Plan money for things like infrastructure, and post-governor, Wolf said he’ll “be happy just to be able to talk about what happened in the eight years I was here to my grandchildren and reflect on the eight years I had here and say that was really a privilege, really an interesting experience.”