New lines for the state Assembly will remain in place for elections this year, but a state appellate division judge in Manhattan ruled Friday that they must be changed by 2024 at the latest.
“We were not expecting a win at the appellate division and we are excited … We went up against the machine in Albany from both parties,” Gavin Wax, president of the New York State Young Republican Club, said Wednesday.
Wax, Democratic activist Gary Greenberg and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Nichols filed the suit after the Court of Appeals — the highest court in New York — tossed out maps for Congress and state Senate weeks ago, saying they were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.
Spokespeople for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Board of Elections, who are among the defendants in the case, said separately Friday that they are reviewing the decision.
The ruling means that a lower court now has broad leeway to redraw the Assembly map.
Possible outcomes include the approval of lines that are more or less like those approved along bipartisan lines by the Assembly in early April, according to redistricting expert and New York Law School Prof. Jeff Wice.
Or, he added, the lower court could create a dramatically different map or even order that Assembly candidates elected this year serve just one year before running for reelection in redrawn districts in 2023.
“The plan was rejected for purely technical reasons that the Legislature has no authority to redistrict after the Independent Redistricting Commission failed to do its job,” added Wice, referring to a panel tasked by the state Constitution with overseeing the process.
Albany Democrats approved a so-called “Hochulmander” of the congressional map that could have helped them flip several GOP-held seats as Democrats defend their slip House majority this year.
The state Senate map was invalidated for technical reasons because the courts ruled that the Constitution did not give lawmakers explicitly authority to oversee redistricting after Democratic and GOP commissioners could not reach a consensus.
The court had added in its decision that it would have invalidated the Assembly map for procedural reasons as well if it had been a specific target of the litigation before the court.
That created an opening for Gavin, Nichols and Greenberg to launch a fresh challenge to the approved lines.
“This isn’t a victory for us, it’s a victory for all New Yorkers because this map was engineered to protect incumbents,” Jim Walden, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Post Friday.
Efforts are already underway to appeal Friday’s decision to the Court of Appeals in hopes of securing a new map in time for a September primary this year, according to Walden.
“The fight is not done yet,” he said.
The courts have already rejected efforts to combine the June 28 primary for Assembly and Aug. 23 primary for state Senate and Congress into a single election date.
Whatever happens with that appeal, the twists and turns of the decennial redistricting process will continue for some time given the uncertainty on how a lower court might approach the creation of new Assembly districts.
“This could go on for several more months,” Wice said.
