Court orders redraw of New York’s House map in preliminary win for Democrats

A New York appeals court on Tuesday ordered a redraw of the state’s congressional lines, delivering a preliminary win to Democrats who have sought to dismantle the current House map in a case that is expected to move next to the state’s top court.

The 3-to-2 decision marks the latest step in a long-running legal battle over the state’s congressional map, which was redrawn by an independent expert in Pennsylvania last year after lines drawn by the Democratic-controlled Legislature were rejected in court as a partisan gerrymander.

Frustrated in their attempt to tilt the board toward their favor in the midterm elections, Democrats have sought to get the current maps thrown out in time for the 2024 election. In the midterms, Republicans flipped four House seats in New York.

The decision by the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division of the 3rd Judicial Department could help Democrats’ odds of winning an ultimate victory at New York’s top court, the Court of Appeals.

“It’s always easier to uphold a lower court decision,” said Jeff Wice, a professor at New York Law School who is closely following the case.

And the ruling by the appellate panel added to a series of recent court developments touching House maps around the U.S. that could boost Democrats in 2024.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a surprise decision that found Alabama’s congressional map likely violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. The ruling left Alabama lawmakers to redraw the state’s House lines, and could also deliver Democrats favorable congressional maps in Louisiana and other states.

In New York, Democratic voters requested that the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission get another chance to make the map.

The bipartisan commission, created for a once-a-decade redistricting, failed to reach a consensus last year and gave up; Democrats in Albany then drew and approved their own district lines before a GOP lawsuit foiled their plans.

The Democratic challenge to the current map was dealt a blow in September.

Justice Peter Lynch of Albany Supreme Court ruled that the IRC lacked the authority to submit a new map, and that allowing it to do so would unsettle the constitutional aim of delivering stability to the electoral process.

But a narrow appellate court decision reversed Lynch’s finding.

In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Elizabeth Garry wrote that the challengers had “demonstrated a clear legal right” to relief and that the decision honors the need for a “robust, fair and equitable procedure for the determination of voting districts in New York.”

The Elias Law Group, a Washington law firm that supports the Democratic Party and brought the challenge, cheered the decision.

“We are thrilled that the Court recognized the Independent Redistricting Commission’s constitutional duty to redraw New York’s congressional map,” Aria Branch, a lawyer with the Elias Group, said in a statement.

“We will continue to advocate for the open, fair redistricting process that recognizes New York’s racial, ethnic, and geographic diversity.”

But former Rep. John Faso, a New York Republican who helped lead the Republican court challenge last year, said he was confident the Democrats would lose the next round.

“We remain confident the Court of Appeals will uphold the decision in Harkenrider v. Hochul,” Faso said in a statement, referring to the case that voided the map drawn by the Legislature last year.

“Democrats want to rig the congressional district lines,” Faso said in the statement.

The stakes of the battle are raised by the state of the House: Republicans emerged from the midterms with a flimsy five-seat majority, and both parties see New York as potentially pivotal territory in 2024.

And if Democrats can take back the House, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn could become the next House speaker. He has called the current map a “partisan map drawn by an unelected out-of-town special master.”

In a statement on Thursday, Jeffries urged the IRC to “get to work expeditiously and present a map that fairly reflects the racial, ethnic, cultural, regional and socio-economic diversity of our great state.”

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But the court battle seemed unfinished.

Court watchers have said they can see the case, Hoffmann v. New York State Independent Redistricting Commission, ultimately going either way. The case itself hinges on an ambiguous provision of the state Constitution.

The Court of Appeals judge who penned the opinion rejecting last year’s Democratic gerrymander, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, resigned in the summer. She was replaced by a new chief judge, Rowan Wilson, a liberal who has served on the court since 2017 and dissented in the case last year.

Another liberal judge, Caitlin Halligan, joined the seven-member court this spring. Last year’s decision came in a 4-to-3 vote at the Court of Appeals.

But time could be working against Democrats this year. Judges on the Court of Appeals might be resistant to resetting the process so close to the next election season.

And the top court is currently out for its summer recess. It was not clear when the court might take up the case.

“Everyone knows the clock is ticking,” Wice said.