ALBANY, New York (WWNY) – A divided Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the state’s new political boundaries for congress and state senate are unconstitutional.
In a 4-3 vote, the state’s highest court ordered the case returned to state Supreme Court, where a neutral expert will draw new lines.
Although the court did not definitively rule out a June 28 primary for congress and state senate, it did say “it will likely be necessary to move the congressional and senate primary elections to August.”
The court’s decision Wednesday will affect the north country, where congressional lines drawn by the Democratic majority in the state legislature in February split Fort Drum and Jefferson County into pieces, with current congresswoman Elise Stefanik keeping the northern part of Drum and some of the northern and eastern part of Jefferson County, with the rest going into a newly configured congressional district stretching from Niagara Falls to Alexandria Bay.
The decision is also likely to affect the make-up of the state senate district now represented by Patty Ritchie, who is retiring.
And most of all, the decision will have national implications – Democrats had hoped to draw the political lines so that they would win an additional three seats in congress in November, helping to offset what are expected to be big losses elsewhere in the country.
The majority of the Court of Appeals ruled the new congressional lines were drawn “with impermissible partisan purpose,” and said the state senate lines were “procedurally unconstitutional.”
Because the court’s decision upends the political calendar, the judges noted they “appreciate that rescheduling a primary election impacts administrative officials, candidates for public office, and the voters themselves.”
But they rejected arguments that because election season is already underway, proper or not, the new political lines must be used.
“We are not convinced that we have no choice but to allow the 2022 primary election to proceed on unconstitutionally enacted and gerrymandered maps,” the judges wrote.
The judges note that New York until recently held primaries in September; time enough, they maintain, to get new lines drawn, let the candidates collect petitions and educate voters.
Still, the decision has dropped a large dollop of uncertainty into election planning.
“They (candidates) collected petitions on the boundaries based on the boundaries as they understand them. Now if the boundaries are to change radically it brings up the question, did they get signatures from people who are now not qualified to vote for them and does there need to be another petition process,” Jude Seymour, Republican elections commissioner for Jefferson County, said Wednesday.
“I don’t know the answer to that and I don’t know that the Court of Appeals knows the answer to that right this second. But certainly these are questions that are going to have to be figured out by somebody well above my pay grade.”
In 2014, New Yorkers attempted to take control of the redrawing of political lines – a once every 10 year process called redistricting – out of the hands of politicians by approving a bipartisan Independent Redistricting Committee.
But the committee could not reach agreement on new maps this year, and the Democrats who have absolute control over the state legislature rushed through a new series of political boundaries without consulting Republicans.
“The legislature responded by creating and enacting maps in a nontransparent manner controlled exclusively by the dominant political party – doing exactly what they would have done had the 2014 constitutional reforms never been passed,” the majority of the Court of Appeals decided.
Judge Jenny Rivera was one of the minority dissenting from Wednesday’s decision. She wrote the “legislature acted within its authority.”
The claim by Republicans who challenged the new district lines that they were drawn to give Democrats an unfair advantage “is also without merit as their evidence fell far short of proving that the legislature’s congressional map was unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge concluded.
State Senator Joe Griffo (R – 47th District), who now represents part of St. Lawrence County and all of Lewis County but would not under the maps Democrats approved – and the court struck down Wednesday – said in a statement “It is apropos that the state’s highest court has ruled against a partisan attempt to draw gerrymandered legislative and congressional district boundaries.”
“This case further demonstrates a need for true government reform, which I have advocated and will continue to do so.”
Elise Stefanik’s congressional district actually gained Republican voters when Democrats redrew the district lines, as they tried to shove as many Republican votes as possible into as few districts as possible.
Stefanik said the court decision is a “win for all New Yorkers” and “It’s never been more clear, this November, a Red Wave will sweep across our great state and rid us of the corruption that runs deep in Albany.”
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