Arguing that the ruling “runs roughshod” over the principle that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court does not sit as a trier of fact, the state Public Utility Commission and Department of Environmental Protection have petitioned the justices for reconsideration of their decision to strike down as unconstitutional amendments to the state’s Oil and Gas Act requiring municipalities to adopt uniform zoning ordinances that would allow drilling in all zoning districts.
“As this court has emphasized, fact-finding is ‘a task for a trial court,’ and an ‘area of the judicial process’ that this court ‘would never invade,’” the agencies said in their petition, quoting language from the 1969 Supreme Court case Reed v. Universal C.I.T. Credit. “Because the court for the first time has ‘invade[d] that area of the judicial process’ in this case, reconsideration is warranted.”
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