Republicans on Thursday won a huge redistricting lawsuit in New York, which may cost Democrats three to four seats in the U.S. Congress.
A lower New York court threw out the state’s newly drawn Democrat-designed gerrymandered map because it violated the redistricting process in the state’s constitution. Though the ruling is huge for Republicans, the ruling will be appealed to the Court of Appeals, the state’s top court.
If the ruling is upheld on appeal, New York state lawmakers may miss the June primary deadline for the creation of a second map. The judge has ordered state legislators to draw new lines with bipartisan support by April 11.
The gerrymandered map was originally designed with the help of 15 Assembly Republicans that may have legitimized the process the court found illegal. The 15 Assembly Republicans have been in hot water due to enabling the gerrymandered map.
The map attempted to cut the Republican delegation in half by using extreme gerrymandering tactics. In February, lawsuit asserted the “Legislature had no authority to enact the new map because the Legislature did not follow the exclusive process for enacting replacement maps that the People enshrined through the 2014 amendments, meaning that the congressional map is entirely void.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of Steuben County, New York, a Republican stronghold in the southwest part of the state. Judge Patrick McAllister sided with Republicans because the maps did not follow the state’s constitutional process.
“This court finds that the November, 2020 legislation which purported to authorize the legislature to act in the event the IRC failed to act was not a mere enactment of legislation to help clarify or implement the Constitution, but in fact substantially altered the Constitution,” the judge wrote on page 10 of the 18-page ruling. “Therefore the Court finds the recently enacted Congressional maps are unconstitutional.”
In January, the Democrats in New York were able to push forward and enact the now-unconstitutional map because 15 state Assembly Republicans voted for the Democrat-drawn gerrymandered Assembly map to protect their own Assembly seats. These assemblymen likely legitimized the process the lawsuit alleged was illegal.
Gavin Wax, president of the New York Young Republican Club, told Breitbart News on Friday there “was no excuse” for the 15 Republicans to enable the Democrat map.
“That fact that a court in deep blue New York ruled that these maps were unconstitutional and illegal show how out of touch the 15 Assembly Republicans who voted for the state maps were,” Wax said. “There was no excuse for them to break party ranks and vote with the Democrats.”
“I am now worried that their votes to support the maps will be used against us if this goes to appeal,” Wax added about the 15 Assembly members that may have legitimized the faulty redistricting process the lawsuit found illegal.
These are the 15 State Assembly members who voted with the Democrats to legitimize the gerrymandering process:
GOP Leader William Barclay
Michael Fitzpatrick NY8
Karl Brabenec 98
Brian Miller 101
Chris Tague 102
Kieran Michael Lalor 105
Joseph Angelino 122
John Lemondes 126
Philip Palmesano 132
Josh Jensen 134
Stephen Hawley 139
Michael Norris 144
Angelo Morinello 145
Andy Goodell 150
Joseph M. Giglio 148
Overall, Republicans have struggled in redistricting. According to David Wasserman, senior editor of the Cook Political Report, Democrats have taken a two- to three-seat advantage in the redistricting battle where Republicans were expected to dominate.
The establishment media have even taken notice of how “weirdly well” Democrats are performing in nationwide redistricting battles. “[A]ccording to at least one analyst, there is actually an outside chance that the final map will be tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats’ favor,” the New York Magazine reported in December.
The case is Harkenrider v. Gov. Hochul. The docket number is unassigned in the Supreme Court of Steuben County, New York.