In a rousing win for New York’s voters, the state’s highest court invalidated the twisted district maps drawn by the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority to help their party for the next decade. Answering the calls of this page and the League of Women Voters, the Court of Appeals (where all seven judges were appointed by Democratic governors) affirmed that the obvious and egregious gerrymandering was both an illegitimate procedural end run around the Constitution and an illegal rejection of its clear command that lines never be drawn to discourage competition.
The 4-3 victory was total. Maps will be redrawn by a special master appointed by Acting Steuben County State Supreme Court Justice Patrick McAllister, with the high court recommending McAllister move primaries back two months.
The principled majority decision authored by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore correctly focuses on the language and intent of the 2014 constitutional amendment championed by the late Ed Koch and passed by the people. The new Independent Redistricting Commission was to take the lead, but when the IRC deadlocked, the Legislature illegally claimed power it did not have.
