**THIS STORY WAS UPDATED 4/27 AT 6:00 PM**
New York’s highest court has struck down the state’s new district lines for Congress and the state Senate, throwing the state’s June 28th primary into potential chaos.
The court upheld lower court rulings that determined that democrats, who hold supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, deliberately gerrymandered the districts to favor candidates in their party.
The 4 to 3 ruling, which cannot be appealed, ordered that a court appointed special master will now redraw the lines.
“The enactment of the congressional and senate maps by the legislature was procedurally unconstitutional, and the congressional map is also substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose,” wrote Chief Judge Janet DiFiore in the majority opinion. “Prompt judicial intervention is both necessary and appropriate to guarantee the People’s right to a free and fair election.”
The petitioning period for the June primary has already passed, and ballots for early voting were due to be printed in a matter of weeks, so the court says it’s likely that the primaries for congressional and state Senate races will have to be put off until later in the summer.
The new lines for the state Assembly districts were not challenged and will remain as they were drawn.
Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s Law School, and who has been critical of the new maps, says the decision is not a surprise.
“By all accounts, the New York maps are a fairly aggressive gerrymander to favor democrats,” Li said. “There was a lot of evidence about that.”
In the past decades, challenges to district lines, which are reconfigured after the census every ten years, have failed. The different this time, is that in 2014, voters approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits the drawing of districts that would advantage an incumbent or disadvantage challengers, or would discourage competition. The 2014 changes also set up a bi partisan, independent redistricting commission. Earlier this year, the commission deadlocked along party lines and released two opposing maps. The legislature was not supposed to draw its own lines until the commission made a second attempt to produce another set of maps. The court found that the senate and assembly also violated the constitution by not following those rules.
“The Court of Appeals felt it was important to tell the legislature ‘no this process is required under New York law’,” Li said. “’And that is what you are supposed to follow’.”
Republicans, who are in the minority party in state government and who brought the lawsuit, argued that the new districts unfairly disadvantaged at least four of the state’s eight GOP congressional representatives.
Nicole Malliotakis, the only republican representing New York City, under the plan would see the Brooklyn liberal neighborhood of Park Slope be added to her predominately conservative Staten Island district. Upstate, two GOP congressional reps were drawn out of their districts altogether, and said planned to move to try to retain their seats. On Long Island, a seat being vacated by Lee Zeldin, who is the republican nominee for governor, was reconfigured to add more democratic areas.
Malliotakis said, in a statement, that she is “heartened to see that the judicial system worked and that the will of the people is being preserved."
Democrats maintained that they drew the lines fairly, and that any changes made were to correct unfairly drawn lines during past decades when republicans had more sway in redistricting decisions.
Republicans praised the court’s decision.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt said, in a statement, that the decision “affirms our position that under One-Party Rule, Albany politicians engaged in obvious partisan gerrymandering, violating the State Constitution”. Ortt says “Albany’s ruling class decided to put their political survival ahead of the will of the people.”
State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy was blunter.
“The Hochulmander has officially been defeated,” Langworthy said.
Some government reform groups were also pleased with the ruling.
Laura Ladd Bierman, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters, which filed an amicus brief in the case, said the decision “represents a great victory for the People of New York, who , who approved a Constitutional amendment that significantly altered both substantive standards governing redistricting”.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says the Senate disagrees with the decision.
"We disagree with the Court of Appeals decision and believe in the constitutionality of the Congressional and state legislative maps passed earlier this year. “ said Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy. “The State Senate maps in particular corrected an egregious partisan gerrymander and have not been overturned on the merits by any court. We will make our case to the special master appointed by the court."
The court’s decision has national implications for control of the House of Representatives after the 2022 elections. New York’s lines, which favored democrats, could have counter acted efforts in republican dominated states, including Florida and Texas, to draw more districts that are favorable to the GOP.
Li, with the Brennan Center, says New York’s high court is also following a national trend of state courts who threw out gerrymandered lines.
“This ruling really fits in with a series of rulings around the country that have struck down both democratic and republican gerrymanders for violating states constitutions,” Li said.
In North Carolina, Ohio, and Kansas, maps drawn by Republican dominated state legislatures were thrown out, and a court in Maryland struck down maps drawn by democratic state lawmakers.
EARLIER COVERAGE
The state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, heard arguments Tuesday on whether New York’s new Congressional lines are unconstitutionally gerrymandered and have to be redrawn.
The court heard an appeal of two lower court rulings, which had struck down the new congressional lines.
A mid level appeals court upheld the new state Senate and Assembly district lines.
Republicans, who are in the minority party in state government and who brought the lawsuit, argue that the new districts, which were drawn by democratic supermajorities in the legislature, unfairly disadvantage at least four of the state’s eight GOP congressional representatives.
Nicole Malliotakis, the only republican representing New York City, under the plan would see the Brooklyn liberal neighborhood of Park Slope be added to her predominately conservative Staten Island district. Upstate, two GOP congressional reps were drawn out of their districts altogether, and said planned to move to try to retain their seats. On Long Island, a seat being vacated by Lee Zeldin, who is the republican nominee for governor, was reconfigured to add more democratic areas.
Misha Tseytlin, arguing for the republicans, says the democrats violated the state’s constitution, amended by voters in 2014, which prohibits the drawing of districts to advantage an incumbent or disadvantage challengers, and discourage competition.
“They also set up the strongest language prohibiting partisan gerrymandering found in any constitution in the United States,” said Tseytlin, who said the legislature then “ignored” that process “in the very first redistricting process where this was relevant.”
The amendment also authorized a bipartisan redistricting commission, known as the IRC, to have two chances to draw fair maps, before the legislature was permitted to intervene and draw the maps itself. The commission gridlocked along party lines and drew two opposing maps, but never submitted a second set of maps.
Democrats in the legislature say they drew the lines fairly, and any changes were to correct unfair lines drawn during past decades when republicans had more sway in redistricting decisions. Attorneys for the Legislative Leaders argued at the appeal, as did Jeffrey Lang, a lawyer for Governor Kathy Hochul, who is named in the suit.
"We seriously disagree with the proposition that this was an egregious gerrymander,” Lang said. “We don’t believe it was a gerrymander at all.”
The court is made up of seven judges, all appointed by either Governor Kathy Hochul or her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, both democrats. They peppered both sides with questions, including queries about potential remedies they should order, if they find that the maps did violate the constitution.
Tseytlin, representing the republicans, says the court should appoint a neutral, court appointed special master.
Attorneys for the democrats say the legislature, which is controlled by democrats, should be given another chance to redraw the lines.
Judge Michael Garcia asked Hochul’s attorney, Lang, whether a potential compromise could include allowing the legislature to submit a proposed new map to a special master.
Lang said he believes any new maps drawn should then be reviewed by a lower court judge.
“So we would have to start the whole process from the beginning?” Garcia asked.
Lang says yes, he believes the process would have to start over, and he says, with a primary scheduled for June 28th, and the petitioning for candidates already concluded, there’s not enough time for that.
“The election has simply proceeded too far down the road,” Lang said.
Judge Jenny Rivera asked whether the argument of a tight election timeline would potentially permit lawmakers to gerrymander in the future, and then say it’s too late to make changes.
“Doesn’t that incentivize what happened here?” Rivera asked. “Especially for those who might want the kind of outcome that they think they find in the lines as they were drawn?”
Lang answered that he doesn’t think that would happen.
The court is expected to issue its ruling within days.
