Citing a flawed redistricting process, the Supreme Court of the State of New York ordered the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to try again to draw new legislative districts for the state assembly. The decision comes after the commission’s failure to agree on redistricting maps earlier in the year, and a long protracted legal battle that resulted in the state’s highest court invalidating the congressional, senate, and assembly maps. Read the order here.
While the congressional and senate maps were redrawn by a court-appointed special master for the 2022 elections, the legislative map will not be needed until 2024. The commission has until next Spring to present an assembly map to the legislature. The court’s sentiment is below:
The IRC is already established, has the past experience of coordinating and conducting statewide hearings and now only has a responsibility to present an assembly map. At the same time, the court would be naïve to ignore the possibility of further litigation. Even if the IRC, legislature and Governor perform their constitutional obligations, the resultant map is still subject to challenge. Therefore this Court will direct the IRC to present their first assembly map to the legislature on or before April 28, 2023 and will base all other constitutionally relevant dates on same. . . circumstances have granted all a rare opportunity for a second bite of the apple.
Find us on:
