1 week Ago By Tom Riese
This is WESA Politics, a weekly newsletter by our political reporters providing analysis about Pittsburgh and state politics. If you want it earlier — we'll deliver it to your inbox on Thursday afternoon — sign up here . Divided government can be frustrating, as every elected official in Harrisburg can tell you.
Democrats control the governor’s mansion and hold the House by a one-vote margin, but they see many of their efforts falter in the Republican-controlled Senate. The GOP has the opposite problem. But a handful of Republican lawmakers may have found a workaround: When legislation fails, try litigation.
Last month, two state House members – Lawrence and Butler County representative Aaron Bernstine and Barbara Gleim of Cumberland County – joined two school districts in a lawsuit to roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students . The suit argues that the state Human Relations Commission overstepped itself by defining sex discrimination to include protections for gay and transgender people. Among the lawyers trying the case is a third Republican, Butler County state Rep.
Stephenie Scialabba, whose law firm serves as the solicitor for the districts that filed the suit. It’s the second such case she’s filed against the state since she was sworn in as a legislator in 2023: The first involved “culturally relevant education standards” meant to diversify the perspectives to which students were exposed. The state Department of Education announced changes to its approach last year, though it said the lawsuit did not prompt the move.
Scialabba’s involvement in such litigation raised some eyebrows in Harrisburg. “This is the first time I've really heard about a lawmaker being the legal representation for ..
. other lawmakers around legislative policy changes,” said Pittsburgh House member Emily Kinkead, a Democrat. It’s not unusual for lawmakers to hold onto careers outside the Capitol: About half of state lawmakers report other jobs at which they’ve continued while in office, though according to the biography on Scialabba’s law firm web page , her specialty is in data privacy and cybersecurity, rather than municipal, discrimination, or education law.
(As a legislator, she co-chairs the state Cybersecurity Caucus and is leading a task force on artificial intelligence.) And lawmakers sometimes do challenge other state officials in court, especially when they feel their role as lawmakers has been infringed on. Republicans have, for example, sought to take part in suits about abortion rights and voting procedures, with mixed results.
(Though in this case, court documents show, Gleim and Bernstine are suing in their capacity as parents and taxpayers.) But to sue the state government you are part of as part of your second job, Kinkead said, smacks of “trying to get around the legislative process and effect policy change in different ways.” Scialabba’s office said she declined to comment on her role in the case, as did Gleim and Bernstine.
But their lawsuit accuses the Human Relations Commission members of overstepping their roles. Including gender identity as a source of possible discrimination is “a blatant example of government bureaucrats overstepping their authority to push gender ideology,” according to a statement from attorney Thomas King, of the Butler County law firm that spearheaded the case on behalf of the conservative Thomas More Society. King accused the Human Relations Commission of having “redefined reality” on gender.
The commission “wasn’t elected by anybody, and nor were they ever authorized by the legislature to do this.” Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is named as a defendant in the suit, likened the suit to politicos hoping “to score cheap political points by bullying a trans kid or making it harder for someone to marry who they love.
” Either way, Scialabba and her defendants are waging a fight both on the House floor and in the courtroom. Last year, Scialabba told WESA that one of her legislative goals would be to push for a " Parental Bill of Rights ," which critics say would quash discussion on gender identity in schools. And she recently announced an effort to overhaul the makeup of the HRC , the commission being sued by her law firm.
Citing a number of vacancies on the board, she said appointments should be made by legislative leaders and the governor, as well as the auditor general and the attorney general. (That would give the GOP a board majority, at least for as long as the last two positions remain in the hands of Republicans.) She and Gleim both serve on the House Education committee, and they back a bill to limit transgender students’ participation in school sports .
A Senate version of the bill — the Save Women’s Sports Act — recently passed a committee and is expected to be up for a floor vote this spring. Kinkead said such legislation “is not going to go anywhere for as long as the Democrats are in the majority in the House.” But even if that turns out to be true, the state just might see Scialabba and her colleagues in court.
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