New York’s Redistricting Process, So Far

• New York’s redistricting process was first controlled by a bipartisan redistricting commission. The Democratic-led legislature stepped in and drew its own maps after the redistricting commission failed to fulfill its duties.

• The legislature’s enacted map was struck down for partisan gerrymandering, forcing districts to be redrawn by a “special master.”

• The map enacted for the 2022 midterms protected a handful of Republican districts around NYC that Democrats tried to draw away.

The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Albany has ruled that the map used in the 2022 congressional elections was only a temporary fix and that the state’s redistricting process may restart with a blank slate. This means that the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission will take another crack at drawing congressional districts that must be approved by the state’s Democratic legislature.

The decision against the previous map was less about partisan gerrymandering and more about process. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore stated that Democratic lawmakers created the maps in a process that was “procedurally unconstitutional” as they jumped in to create and pass their own maps before the state’s redistricting commission was able to fulfill its legal obligations. While it does highlight that the congressional map was “drawn with impermissible partisan purpose,” much of the 32-page decision critiques the unfair environment under which the map was drawn rather than the map’s inherent unfairness.

What Will Democrats Do?

While Democrats themselves won’t draw new districts themselves, they are responsible for validating the maps drawn by the redistricting commission. (Important Note: Democrats do get to draw districts if two versions of maps proposed by the commission fail to receive a majority vote in the legislature.) After Democrats’ dismal performance in the state’s 2022 congressional elections, many expect the party to push through another map that treats Democrats favorably (despite clear language in the state constitution outlawing such behavior.) The party lost four New York congressional seats in 2022 and redistricting provides Democrats the opportunity to turn back the clock on those tough losses. While doing so risks another judicial challenge, Democrats may be more likely to push the envelope to counteract Republicans’ racial gerrymandering in the South. Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama are all facing challenges to their maps due to racial gerrymandering and when Republicans were ordered by SCOTUS to re-draw a fairer map in Alabama, they thumbed their noses. So while Republicans are quick to call out such actions in New York, claiming that Democrats “are seeking to change the rules of the game,” their Southern counterparts are ignoring the rules on a much grander scale. That may embolden Democrats to engage in a “tit-for-tat,” especially if SCOTUS rulings fail to address the unfair maps being pushed by Republicans.

(And just a reminder: Democrats tried their hardest to fight gerrymandering on the federal level and it was Republicans who said “nope,” making this our reality… 😩)