New York Dems illegally drew congressional districts, appeals court rules

[buh buh biden]

A mid-level appeals court in New York State ruled late Thursday that
Democrats illegally drew up new congressional maps to unfairly benefit
their own party.

A panel of five judges wrote that Democrats unconstitutionally drew up
congressional districts "to discourage competition or for the purpose of
favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or
political parties." Two of the judges dissented.

The judges said that Democratic lawmakers drafted the 2022 congressional
redistricting map "without any Republican input, and the map was adopted
by the legislature without a single Republican vote n favor of it."

A group of Republican voters had argued that the maps amounted to
gerrymandering and filed a lawsuit in state court asking to have the maps
to be tossed out and to delay the June congressional primaries until late
August. They say this would give the state enough time to draw up new
maps.

Democrats' attorneys said the maps are more than fair to Republicans, who
lost their decadeslong control of the state Senate in 2018 but have won
some swing districts. Democrats say the new maps protect minority voting
rights and reflect population loss in upstate communities once considered
Republican strongholds.

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Democrats also said there isn't enough time to change the maps for 2022
races, and say the judges should toss the lawsuit because it doesn't
include voters in all districts statewide.

A lower-court judge declared last month that New York's new maps were
unconstitutionally gerrymandered, and said the legislative maps should
also be tossed because lawmakers exceeded their authority when they passed
them.

Attorneys for the state Senate, Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul appealed
the lower-court ruling and said the judge was wrongly limiting the
Legislature's power.

A panel of five mid-level appellate judges began hearing arguments
Wednesday. The case will now be heard by New York’s top court where oral
arguments could be as early as next week.

The decision will have major implications for Democrats going into the
June 28 primary ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Democrats had anticipated that the new lines drawn up would give them an
edge in the election, particularly in light of the Florida Senate having
recently approved a congressional map proposal that would help pave the
way for large GOP gains in the state.

So far this election cycle, courts have intervened to block maps they
found to be Republican gerrymanders in North Carolina, Ohio and
Pennsylvania, and a Democratic gerrymander in Maryland. Such decisions
have led to delayed primaries in North Carolina, Ohio and Maryland.

Republicans represent about 22% of registered New York voters, and
currently hold eight of the state's 27 seats in Congress. But New York now
gets one less seat following the 2020 Census, and the new maps would give
Democrats a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the state's 26
congressional districts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-dems-illegally-drew-
congressional-districts-appeals-court-rules