Last week, briefs were filed in a case brought by a group of voters to redraw New York’s current congressional map. The state used a map drawn by a court special master to conduct the 2022 election after a map drawn by the legislature was deemed a partisan gerrymander. The New York legislature had only passed its map after a newly established independent redistricting commission (NYIRC), deadlocked on maps in January of 2022.
Now the question is whether the legislature, the commission, or both can have another go at it. A trial court in September of 2022 unequivocally answered “no” to this question and now that decision has been appealed. The question is whether the trial court erred in concluding that the remedial congressional map approved by the Supreme Court of Steuben County on May 20, 2022, must remain in effect until after the next decennial census in 2030.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the Attorney General filed a brief supporting the drawing of a new map, stating “The People’s right to a congressional map that gives effect to the Legislature’s right to cure, by employing the IRC process, should not be disregarded for the next four congressional elections because of the now dissipated exigencies that required the Harkenrider Court to forego these procedures”.
The plaintiffs also argued that “There are many examples—including from here in New York—of court-drawn remedial maps being replaced, even in the same congressional cycle, with constitutionally compliant maps that arise later out of the state’s normal process for redistricting.”
Meanwhile, the NYIRC is working on drawing a new state house map pursuant to a September 2022 trial court order. The deadline for the commission to adopt those maps is April 28, 2023.
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