New York's highest court weighs redistricting lawsuit

(The Center Square) — The fate of New York’s contested congressional maps is in the hands of the state's highest court, which is weighing a case that could ultimately impact control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The New York Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of voters arguing that the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission didn't fulfill its mandatory redistricting responsibility when the panel deadlocked over drawing new political maps.

Democrats are pushing to redraw the state's congressional districts to give the party an edge in the fight for control of the House in the 2024 elections. They argue that the independent commission should redraw the political maps instead of court-drawn maps put in place last year.

"What we are challenging here is the failure of maps to be drawn according to the IRC legislative process set forth in the Constitution," Aria C. Branch, an attorney for the Democrats, told the court. "That process was denied to New York voters."

Republicans are trying to keep the congressional maps intact, arguing that they are politically balanced and that the state shouldn't be conducting another redistricting ahead of the next decennial census.

"Mid-decade redistricting is particularly dangerous, because of course, potential gerrymanders know where the incumbents are, know where the close districts are and know how to take them out," Misha Tseytlin, a lawyer representing Republican voters, told the court. "That’s a recipe for another festival of gerrymandering."

The U.S. Constitution requires states to draw new congressional district lines every 10 years, following the census, to account for changes in their population. States also use those numbers to draw maps for their state legislative districts. New York lost one of its 27 House seats after the census.

New York voters approved a ballot question in 2014, stripping the Legislature of its role in the once-in-a-decade redistricting and putting it in the hands of an independent commission.

Following the 2020 Census, the Democratic-controlled Legislature rejected the panel's proposed congressional maps amid a stalemate and approved their districts.

But the Supreme Court ruled the new districts unconstitutional and ordered a special master and a Republican judge in upstate Steuben County to draw new maps that benefited GOP challengers in House districts in the Hudson Valley and Long Island.

In the 2022 midterms, Republicans flipped three seats in New York and won an open race crucial to the party regaining a narrow House majority.

Last June, a group of New York voters filed a lawsuit against the redistricting commission, asking the appeals court to redraw the congressional boundaries, arguing the Legislature failed to consider a second set of maps, as required by the 2014 redistricting law.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York's Democratic standard-bearer, filed a legal brief asking the court to order another redistricting plan.

The outcome of the case could decide control of the House next year, with Democrats targeting New York to retake congressional districts they lost in 2022.

Meanwhile, Republicans are seeking to hold onto the gains and have been hammering away at Democrats over thorny issues such as crime and the influx of tens of thousands of migrants.

It's not clear, however, when the Court of Appeals will issue a decision in the case.