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         N.Y. ELECTIONS, CENSUS & REDISTRICTING UPDATE REDISTRICTING New York City Council Map Challenge Rejected by Appellate Division On May 23rd, an appeal challenging the 2023 New York City Council map was dismissed by the Appellate Division, First Department, in Manhattan. The appeal was from an earlier decision by the state supreme court dismissing a challenge filed by Desis Rising Up & Moving over the alleged failure of the city’s districting commission to create an additional minority district in the Richmond H ..read more

NYC Mayor Eric Adams appointed his seven members to serve on the city council redistricting commission today. His appointees include: Hon. Marilyn D. Go served as a federal Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 1993 to 2019. She previously worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the Eastern District of New York from 1978 to 1982. She then joined the law firm Baden Kramer Huffman Brodsky & Go, where she became a partner in 1984. Go began her career as clerk for Court of Common Pleas Judge William Marutani. Maria ..read more

On March 3, Steuben County State Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister permitted the challenge against the state’s new congressional and state senate maps to proceed, ruling that: The case against the State Senate can be added to the case along with the Congressional challenge.  The motion to dismiss with respect to the standing challenges was dismissed.  The Governor and Lt. Governor would not be dismissed as respondents as they had requested. Limited discovery would be permitted must conclude by March 12. The 2022 elections will proceed using the new maps. On March 1, the Petiti ..read more

Guest Column by SUNY Binghamton Professor Jonathan Krasno NYS’s congressional map has been derided as a partisan gerrymander by both Republicans and nonpartisan observers, mostly because Democrats are poised to gain seats under the new lines. Changes from the status quo is a poor way to evaluate any map. The facts here suggest that NYS’s map is not a partisan gerrymander by Democrats. The problem with using the status quo as a baseline is obvious: it might be biased, too, no matter who created it. In the case of NYS’s congressional map, the mapmaker was officially nonpartisan, a federal magist ..read more

Nick Reisman covers the new lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional map here. While the complaint (see last posting) seeks court rejection of the congressional map only, an additional challenge to the state legislative map is also anticipated. From State of Politics: “The maps just signed into law are unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders that attempt to rig New York elections for the next decade in defiance of the will of the voters and with blatant disregard for New York’s Constitution,”  said attorneys Misha Tseytlin and Republican former state Sen. George Winner. “These new map ..read more

A complaint has been filed in Steuben County State Supreme Court seeking to prevent use of the congressional plan approved by the New York State Legislature yesterday. The case was filed by attorneys from Washington, DC, Chicago, IL and by former State Senator and redistricting commission member George Winner. The 14 plaintiffs reside in localities across the state. Defendants include the Governor, Lt. Governor, Senate President Pro Tem, Speaker of the Assembly, and LATFOR. Plaintiffs are asking the court to reject the congressional plan, prevent its use in this year’s elections, draw a court ..read more

In Politics NY, I review recent court challenges to redistricting maps and why these challenges are hard to win. In State of Politics, Nick Reisman takes a look at how the Republicans may be preparing for court challenges to the state’s new plans (yet to be signed by the Governor. City & State’s Sara Dorn also looks at litigation in a column published today ..read more

Jeff Wice at New York Law School has authored a column on court challenges to redistricting. “In 2012, the New York State Court of Appeals held  in a challenge to the increase in the size of the Senate that “acts of the Legislature are entitled to a strong presumption of constitutionality  and we will upset the balance struck by the Legislature and declare the [redistricting] plan unconstitutional only when it can be shown beyond reasonable doubt that it conflicts with the fundamental law, and that until every reasonable mode of reconciliation of the statute with the Constitution has ..read more

In an interview with Casey Seiler of the Times Union that was livestreamed and as reported by Nick Reisman in Spectrum News, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said “We can draw maps that make sense, that are contiguous, that make sense and are rational and reasonable if we have to do that,” she told The Times Union’s Casey Seiler in a livestream interview Wednesday. “In a related move on Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office announced Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski will serve as the co-chair of the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionme ..read more