New York’s highest state court tossed an effort to salvage the state’s Democrat-drawn congressional map Wednesday, the latest in a series of state court decisions against partisan gerrymandering.
The decision could wipe out Democrats’ push to reduce Republican-leaning districts in the state, which lost a seat to reapportionment. New York’s congressional map “was drawn to discourage competition,” Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote, and violated the state’s 2014 constitutional amendment that established an Independent Redistricting Commission and banned racial and partisan gerrymandering.
DiFiore wrote the map was “substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose,” and the court rejected an argument to let the map stand for this year’s elections. The opinion ordered the lower court to appoint a special master and select a new map “with all due haste” before the state’s primary, which may have to be delayed from June to August.
