Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022
CBS News reports an State Appeals Judge has declined to slow down New York’s primary elections amid a battle over the state’s redistricting plan, but said he would allow a lower court judge to hire an expert to draw up alternative congressional district maps in case the disputed ones ultimately get tossed.
The ruling by state Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley on Friday essentially hands the decision about the constitutionality of the redistricting plan over to a higher court, while creating one possible contingency for keeping the elections on schedule. Lindley sits on the state’s mid-level appeals court in Rochester.
Lindley’s ruling said the state board of elections can still accept petitions filed by candidates running for office in the new districts.
New York’s primary season was potentially upended the previous week when Judge Patrick McAllister declared that new political district maps heavily favoring Democrats had been drawn up illegally.
He ordered the Legislature to quickly redraw the district boundaries, or he would appoint a neutral expert to do it for them.
That ruling has been put on hold while the state appeals.
An appeals court panel has scheduled another hearing for April 20. The case could ultimately be decided by New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The primary has been scheduled for June 28.
In his ruling Friday, Lindley said he would allow McAllister to retain a neutral expert to draw up a new congressional map, if he wishes to do so, to be used if the Legislature’s maps are eventually struck down.
Lindley said the legislature could also draw up a contingency map, if it desires.
If they survive court challenges, the maps will mean re-election trouble for several Republican House members, while scrapping the maps could affect House Democrats’ efforts to maintain their majority.
The contested lines would give Democrats a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the 26 U.S. congressional districts New York will have in 2023. Republicans, who now hold eight of the state’s 27 seats in the U.S. Congress, would only have an advantage in the remaining four districts.
The state is losing a congressional seat due to the 2020 Census data; New York fell just 89 residents short of holding onto all 27 of its districts.
Lawyers for the state Senate and Assembly assured Lindley on Thursday that the maps will pass constitutional muster.
Legislative leaders have said they don’t plan to redraw the maps, and defended them as reflecting population loss in former Republican upstate bastions.
Lindley said Thursday he was chiefly concerned about the prospect of allowing voters to pick candidates based on unconstitutional maps, and said New York must be ready for the possibility of congressional primaries delayed as late as August 23 or 24.
The state judge also struck down the Assembly and Senate maps on procedural grounds.
But Lindley did not allow backup plans for legislative maps in his Friday order. He said there was “less need” for a court master to draw up new legislative maps because the lower court didn’t find they were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
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