Judge axes Democratic-drawn New York congressional map over ‘political bias’
JUST THE NEWS | By and | March 31, 2022
New York’s proposed congressional map that would have skewed 22 of the state’s 26 congressional seats toward Democrats was struck down by a New York judge on Thursday.
Steuben County State Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister, a Republican, ruled the map the Democratic-controlled legislature created “was unconstitutionally drawn with political bias” and not have any competitive seats, CNN reported.
The New York state legislature has until April 11 to pass a new map with “bipartisan support,” McAllister said, and then submit the map to the court for review.
This is the second Democratic defeat in redistricting over the last week. A judge on Friday struck down Democrat-drawn districts in Maryland.
Judge McAllister ruled that the New York legislature violated a 2014 constitutional amendment on a bipartisan redistricting commission because the legislature redrew the map after the commission could not agree, CNN reported.
Republicans celebrated the court victory. Steuben County GOP Chairman Joe Sempolinski applauded McAllister’s ruling, telling Just the News that “I’m proud of the decision that was made because these maps were a blatant violation of the New York State constitution which explicitly banned partisan gerrymandering.”
“Anyone could see that these were partisan gerrymanders,” he asserted, before expressing his hope that the state’s appellate body upholds McAllister’s ruling.
New York’s primary is scheduled for June 28, but it may be moved to August if needed.
