PHILADELPHIA — The Latest on the ruling that Pennsylvania can keep its congressional map (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

A group of Democratic voters is planning to appeal a ruling that Pennsylvania can keep its congressional map despite a challenge that it was improperly gerrymandered.

A three-judge panel on Wednesday rejected the argument that the map should be thrown out because it gives a political advantage to Republicans.

The verdict came a day after another judicial panel rejected North Carolina's congressional map.

A lawyer in the Pennsylvania case, Alice Ballard, says the U.S. Supreme Court should make the final decision.

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6:15 p.m.

The Republican leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate is applauding a ruling that leaves in place the state's congressional district map.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati calls Wednesday's ruling "another affirmation" that the map is constitutional.

He says challenges to the state's congressional maps should have been put on hold, pending the outcome of a case on political gerrymandering being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a 2-1 ruling, judges rejected an argument from a group of Democratic voters that politics should not be considered at all when congressional districts are drawn.

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4:50 p.m.

A federal judicial panel has ruled that Pennsylvania can keep its congressional map, turning back an argument from a group of Democratic voters who contended that it should be thrown out because the state lawmakers who created the map in 2011 gerrymandered it to help Republicans.

Wednesday's decision comes a day after a court threw out North Carolina's congressional map, finding it went too far to help Republicans.

In the 2-1 ruling on Pennsylvania's case, a judge found that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the idea that district maps should be blind to party considerations.

An appeal would go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.