A state appellate court has put a temporary hold on the state’s partisan redistricting map by ruling that the district lines were the result of a highly partisan process.
“Democratic leaders in the legislature drafted the 2022 congressional redistricting map without any Republican input, and the map was adopted by the Legislature without a single Republican vote in favor of it,” the majority decision reached by five judges said.
The 2012 map created 19 Democratic districts and eight Republican seats. The current map will have one less seat due to New York’s loss of population. But this new map would have cost Republicans five seats. Does this mean that in a state with 27 congressional districts only three Republicans will be allowed to serve?
No state is that blue. And the hell of it is, Democrats may yet get away with it.
Politico:
“We are pleased the Court upheld the legislature’s process and the right for the legislature to enact these maps,” state Senate Democratic spokesperson Mike Murphy said in a statement. “The newly-drawn Senate and Assembly maps are now valid. We always knew this case would end at the Court of Appeals and look forward to being heard on our appeal to uphold the Congressional map as well.”
The decision was less sweeping than one issued by a lower-level court in late March. The Republican state judge in Steuben County there concluded that the Legislature never had the authority to draw the lines because the exact process prescribed by a 2014 constitutional amendment on redistricting was not followed.