Top court's map ruling is a win for NY voters

In a climactic and widely hailed ruling, the state's highest court has properly trashed and ordered redrawn the gerrymandered maps on which this season’s congressional and State Senate candidates have already been running.

This result should restore some credibility to our institutional processes at a moment when confidence in the fairness of elections and respect for the will of the voters needs to be affirmed.

The New York State Court of Appeals upheld several positives in its 4-3 decision Wednesday. One is its own independence, from the political party of the governors who appointed its members and from the State Legislature, which funds its budget and sets its salaries.

Chief Judge Janet DeFiore and Justices Madeline Singas, Anthony Cannataro and Michael Garcia, in the majority here, were nominated by Democratic governors, as were the three judges who dissented. Their collective finding disregards the immediate itch of the national party — which is fighting full tilt for every advantage in the midterm House elections.

Partisanship permeated the now-voided lines. The map would have cut likely Republican seats from eight to four. That's an understandable but improper political goal that is now illegal. The fact that judges Jenny Rivera, Rowan Wilson and Shirley Troutman wrote separate dissents, and made the vote close, suggests a difficult, active discussion by the court.

Bigger kudos should be reserved for the way the court treated the state voters’ creation, by referendum, of the bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission in 2014 — which was supposed to play a critical role in this year's process but did not. 

The majority Democrats in Albany gave away the game last year by trying another ballot proposal to further reduce the commission's relevance. Voters said no — and the high court in its opinion made appropriate note of that. It's now an open question how to best improve the commission system next time around.

Perhaps most importantly, the judges refused to ignore the explicit anti-gerrymander language of the 2014 amendment. That stood out as especially relevant in House seats, which included a five-county, Long Island Sound contrivance of a district. While some defenders of the illegal lines said the Legislature should have another crack at the maps, the court majority wisely is sending the rewrite into a judicially-supervised process. 

Contrary to arguments that it is too late to restart the season's primaries, voting can be pushed back to late August. Officials have to work out a sensible way to redo petitions based on legal district lines. And there is good reason to hold all state primary contests — governor, lieutenant governor, House, Senate, and Assembly — on a single date in late August. It would save costs, encourage turnout, and allow time for preparation. Common sense in scheduling will be needed.

As a new redistricting process goes forward, the legislature should end its partisan maneuvering to ensure smooth, fair and competitive elections.