Appeals court hears arguments over suit challenging redistricting maps

Republican and Democratic lawyers took the battle over redistricting up New York state’s judicial ladder Wednesday, arguing before a midlevel appeals court whether the Democratic-led State Legislature ignored the law when it redrew the state’s congressional and legislative districts.

A Republican attorney called the new congressional maps an “egregious gerrymander” that could reduce New York’s GOP delegation from eight to four seats.

Democratic lawyers told the five-judge panel that even if the new maps help their party, it’s because Republican-dominated upstate areas lost population compared with downstate Democratic areas. They also said the Legislature had final authority over the mapmaking process, not a bipartisan redistricting commission.

At stake are the new maps the Legislature approved earlier this year, as part of a once-a-decade process of redistricting based on the latest U.S. Census.

The new maps shifted the number of Democratic-leaning congressional districts in New York from 19 to 22 and decreased Republican ones from eight to four, analysts have said. New York is losing one congressional seat this year, going from 27 to 26.

Republicans filed a lawsuit — in Steuben County, one of the most Republican counties in the state — to have the maps declared unconstitutionally gerrymandered. They also claim Democrats didn’t follow the proper constitutional procedure for adopting new maps — for not just congressional districts but also for the State Senate and Assembly.

On March 31, Republican Judge Patrick McAllister agreed with the GOP and ordered the Legislature to draw up new maps and move the state primaries from June to August. But on April 7, the midlevel Appellate Division issued a temporary stay, or suspension, of McAllister’s decision.

For the moment, the stay means New York will remain on track for June 28 primary elections and the November general election using maps approved by the Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Republican litigants have based a good deal of their argument on the fact that a redistricting commission submitted one set of proposed maps — which the Legislature rejected — but never a second as prescribed by voter-approved constitutional amendment in 2014 creating the commission.

The panel couldn’t agree on a second set of proposals. This didn’t surprise some government watchdogs because they said the law creating it guaranteed failure because the panel, with five Democratic appointees and five Republicans, assured stalemate.

GOP attorney Misha Tseytlin has contended that when the commission failed to agree, the courts should have taken over the process.

Democratic attorney Craig Bucki told the Appellate Division the commission was “simply advisory”; that failure to submit a second proposal was the commission’s fault, not Legislature’s, and that the GOP lawsuit was fatally flawed because it didn’t include plaintiffs from all of the state’s congressional districts. The plaintiffs come from only about one-fourth of the districts in the state.

Most importantly, Bucki noted that New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, already has advised attorneys it expects an appeal of any Appellate Division ruling and will prepare to expedite hearings — possibly as early as next week.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy