Pa. GOP Cite Lawsuit To Block State Senator's Swearing-In By By Matthew Santoni Law360 (January 5, 2021, 6:22 PM EST) -- Republicans in Pennsylvania's state Senate temporarily evicted the lieutenant governor and refused to seat a Democrat from a suburban Pittsburgh district during the Legislature's first session of the year Tuesday because his opponent was still pursuing a federal lawsuit challenging his 69-vote win. After a party-line vote in the Republican-majority Senate removed Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman from presiding over Tuesday's swearing-in ceremonies, Senate President Pro Tem Jake Corman ordered that incumbent state Sen. Jim Brewster be excluded from the reading of official votes and the swearing-in because his opponent, Nicole Ziccarelli, had a pending federal lawsuit challenging state court rulings that allowed the counting of ballots whose outer envelopes lacked handwritten dates or addresses.