The Supreme Court justices down in Washington just sent a clear message to a Supreme Court justice up in Steuben County: In assessing partisan redistricting, judges should measure the lines drawn by legislatures against state laws and the state Constitution.
Forgive any confusion, as in New York, Supreme Court is the basic trial court, where Acting Justice Patrick McAllister is now hearing a challenge brought by Republicans to lines for congressional and state Senate seats drawn by the Legislature’s Democratic supermajority and signed by Gov. Hochul. The Dems ignored maps prepared by the new state Independent Redistricting Commission. The lawmakers, under Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, were bipartisan about it. They rejected the maps offered by the panel’s Democrats and the panel’s Republicans in favor of their own, hyper-gerrymandered outcome.
Once, Democrats reviled such brazen rigging of the democratic process.
New York’s GOP went to court, arguing to McAllister, quite correctly, that the adopted districts violate the state Constitution’s explicit prohibition: “Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.” A blind man could see these congressional districts were drawn to advantage Democrats.
So, back to Washington, where the other Supreme Court on Monday rejected Republican appeals from North Carolina and Pennsylvania to override state court rulings that have ordered up fairer congressional districts than the GOP-controlled legislatures had drawn. Meaning: Go ahead Justice McAllister, and impose less gerrymandered districts, consistent with the law and the state Constitution. Doing so is just fine by the highest court in the land.
McAllister has enough time to get this right. He can order new districts this year after he hears detailed evidence next Monday from experts on both sides. The June 28 primary for the re-drawn seats can easily be moved into August to provide more time and still abide by every state and federal election law. The extra cost of the additional primary can be billed to the power-grabbing Dems in the Capitol.
