This New York redistricting update is excerpted from citylandnyc.org with permission from the New York Law School.
Can New York Redraw Its Congressional Districts?
As the Texas Legislature begins to meet this week to take up a partisan effort to redraw the state’s congressional map, California Governor Gavin Newsom is exploring how his state could redraw its map to counter the power play in the Lone Star State. Governor Newsom believes that one must play hardball when confronted by the type of demands requested by the White House.
The Texas Legislature has few restrictions on what it can do when redistricting. The state redrew its congressional map in 2003 for no other reason than to pick up more districts for the state GOP’s recent takeover of the legislature.
In California, Governor Newsom would either have to amend the state constitution to permit mid-decade redistricting (that would involve a 2/3 majority vote in each chamber of the California Legislature, followed by a vote of the electorate. Alternatively (and less likely), the Governor can ask the legislature to redraw the map even though the state constitution is silent on the power to re-redistrict; it does, however, limit redistricting to once-a-decade.
New York has different rules. First, the state constitution prohibits a mid-decade redistricting. In Article III of the state constitution, Article III, Section 4 says that “a reapportionment plan and the districts contained in such plan shall be in force until the effective date of a plan based upon the subsequent federal decennial census taken in a year ending in zero unless modified pursuant to court order.” Further, the state Court of Appeals invalidated the 2022 remapping of the state’s congressional districts by the legislature because the map was determined to be a partisan gerrymander, in violation of other state constitutional requirements.
Technically, only the state senate map can be redrawn before 2030 if a court (in a new lawsuit) directs the state Independent Redistricting Commission to go back to work to finish the mapping it didn’t complete in 2022, and that map is approved by the state legislature and governor.
Unlike in Texas, where the state legislature can redraw a map without constraints or in California, where the state constitutional amendment process involves approval by the legislature followed by approval by the voters, the New York process can take over a year or more. New York’s constitution requires that any amendments be approved by two consecutively elected legislatures, followed by a vote of the electorate. For example, an amendment passed by the Senate and Assembly in 2025 would have to pass in the same exact form by the new legislature elected in 2027 and then go to the voters for approval. An amendment introduced this year to change the redistricting process could not go into effect until late 2017, one year past the 2026 elections.
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