The state’s top court Tuesday ordered New York’s congressional map to be redrawn for the 2024 elections, giving Democrats a boost in a move that could shift the balance in Congress.
New York’s Court of Appeals in a 4-3 decision said districts that were made last year by a court-appointed “special master” were only eligible for 2022 and need to be redrawn.
The ruling gives Democrats a second chance at drawing fairer maps while Republicans, who flipped four seats in the state on the way to securing a majority in the House of Representatives, sought to keep the map as it currently stands.
“We are pleased with the Court of Appeals’ decision and look forward to getting back to work with our colleagues as soon as possible to ensure that New York’s voters receive the benefit of the historic redistricting reforms they voted for in 2014,” Ken Jenkins, chairman of the Independent Redistricting Commission, said in a statement.
The state’s bipartisan redistricting commission has until Wednesday, Feb. 28, to submit new maps, which will then go before the Democrat-controlled state Legislature for approval.
“The existing judicially drawn congressional districts are limited to the 2022 election,” Judge Rowan Wilson wrote for the majority.
Under the 2014 state constitutional amendment, if the commission does not submit maps by the February deadline, the Legislature will draw the maps themselves, similar to what they did in 2022 before they were challenged.
The Democrats’ proposal, which would have given them a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts, was said to be gerrymandered and rejected by the State Supreme Court.
Democrats will again have much influence over creating districts with more favorable boundaries after losing seats, specifically on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley, two years ago.
In 2021, Republican candidates George Santos and Anthony D’Esposito each flipped the 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts, respectively.
With Santos now out of the House, D’Esposito represents one of 17 House Republicans that President Joe Biden won in 2020. In New York, Democrats lost six congressional races last year that Biden carried in 2020.
“Albany Democrats will do everything in their power to subvert the will of New Yorkers who rejected their failing progressive agenda, and this push to gerrymander fairly drawn congressional lines is just the most recent iteration of the Democrats’ disregard for Long Island voters,” D’Esposito said in a statement Tuesday following the decision.
