The court said in its decision that it would would be “extremely disruptive” to change the rules with absentee voting already underway.

The decision from the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court reverses a lower court ruling that declared New York’s early review of absentee ballots unconstitutional. The appeals court said Republican and Conservative party officials who challenged the law waited too long.

The court also upheld a pandemic-era law that allows voters worried about becoming ill to vote by absentee.

In 2021 and 2022, New York state implemented voting reforms which sought to expand access to absentee ballots, ensure minor technical mistakes on ballots wouldn’t invalidate votes, and update the ballot counting process and timeline.

According to the state Board of Elections, about 552,000 absentee ballots have been sent out with more than 188,000 returned so far.

State Attorney General Letitia James said in a release, “We should be taking every step possible to empower voters and ease New Yorkers’ access to the polls. I was proud to defend New York’s absentee ballot reforms, and am happy with the decision to keep these commonsense election integrity initiatives in place.”

It was not clear if the plaintiffs would try to appeal to the state’s highest court.

The program, “From Vs to &: A Living Legacy,” will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, September 13 at the Center.

The free event features Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson with the conversation moderated by Greg Peterson.

The Plessy vs. Ferguson case was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1896 in which the Court ruled that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as “separate but equal.”

Coinciding with this event, the Jackson Center will host the Lemmon Slave Case Exhibit for one week beginning today, September 12. This panel exhibit of the landmark New York State Court of Appeals case features a video narration by James Earl Jones with an introduction by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore. The exhibit is intended to educate the public on the role of the New York courts in paving the way for the abolition of slavery.

The proposed State Assembly redistricting map that challengers want thrown out

The Associated Press reports a New York appeals court is allowing state Assembly elections to proceed this year under redistricting maps drawn by Democrats but ordered lawmakers to revise the maps in time for the 2024 elections.

The maps have come under fire from Republicans and other critics who say the lines signed into law earlier this year give Democrats an unfair advantage.

Two Democrats and a Republican had asked the court to invalidate the Assembly maps and move the primary to August or September, so new ones could be drawn.

In its ruling Friday, a mid-level appeals court agreed that the Assembly maps had been drawn improperly by the state Legislature but upheld a lower court judge who had ruled in May that it was too late in the state’s election season to come up with new district boundaries.

Delaying the primary until September, the court wrote, was no longer feasible.

The court returned the case to a Manhattan judge to decide how the new maps could be revised in time for elections in 2024.

Jim Walden, the attorney representing the two Democrats and Republican who sued over the Assembly maps, praised the court’s ruling but said he would appeal the part of the decision where the judges declined to move the primary.

Steuben County Courthouse

WSKG reports more than two dozen people from around New York state gathered at the Steuben County Courthouse Friday to provide input to the independent expert redrawing the state’s congressional and state Senate districts.

A number of different racial, religious and other community groups showed up to express their thoughts on new legislative lines in the only hearing before the court-appointed special master, Carnegie Mellon University professor Jonathan Cervas.

Several people said they drove to the Village of Bath from New York City and Long Island – a nearly seven-hour commute for some.

They said making sure their communities were kept whole and had accurate representation in the state Legislature and Congress was important enough to make the trip, though several asked the court to consider opening up more hearings.

The hearing comes the week after the New York State Court of Appeals ruled maps drawn by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to be unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.

The judge overseeing the case, Patrick McAllister, has ordered Cervas to present draft maps by May 16. He hopes to finalize them by May 20.

The proposed State Assembly redistricting map that challengers want thrown out

One lawsuit filed Sunday night and another that is planned to be filed today call on state courts to invalidate the new State Assembly district maps.

The New York Post reports New York Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax filed an emergency motion calling on Steuben County State Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister to throw out the Assembly maps.

The attorney for the New York Republican Club president, Aaron Foldenauer, said in the motion, “In its decision last week, the Court of Appeals determined that the Assembly map was subject to the same unconstitutional procedures as were the congressional and state Senate maps. The only reason that the State Assembly maps have not been struck down is because of a procedural technicality, which is hardly a justification for unconstitutional maps to stand.”

He added that there is ample time for the special master to redraw the 150-district Assembly maps along with Congress and the Senate.

The New York Daily News reports Vernon Downs Casino part-owner Gary Greenbert plans to file a lawsuit today calling on courts to invalidate Assembly maps.

The Court of Appeals ruled last week that the State Legislature lacked the authority to draw up congressional and state Senate maps earlier this year after an independent redistricting commission failed to reach a consensus.

In a footnote, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore wrote that the panel could “not invalidate the assembly map despite its procedural infirmity” since the lawsuit that wound its way through the courts only challenged the Senate

In addition to violating a 2014 constitutional change meant to take the politics out of the redistricting process, the court also agreed with lower court rulings that Democrats gerrymandered the congressional maps in their favor.

A court-appointed expert is now tasked with drafting up new, less partisan Senate and congressional districts. Special master Jonathan Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, may have to add the Assembly to his list if Greenberg’s and Wax’s suits are successful.

The Court of Appeals decision has already turned New York’s election calendar on its head as Judge McAllister on Friday set August 23 as the new date for congressional and Senate primaries.
McAllister said it’s up to the Legislature to determine whether or not to hold the remaining primaries for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, the Assembly and other local races on June 28 as scheduled.

The court-ordered maps are supposed to be finalized by May 20 after getting proposals from the interested parties this week.

New York State Court of Appeals

The New York State Court of Appeals has ruled the state’s new congressional map is unconstitutional. It also invalidated the new State Senate map.

Reuters reports the ruling is seen as a blow to Democrats’ chances of maintaining a majority in the U.S. Congress. Republicans are widely seen as favored to flip the minimum five seats they need nationwide to capture a U.S. House of Representatives majority in November’s congressional elections.

Democrats had hoped the aggressive New York map would offset Republican gains in states such as Texas and Florida, where Republican-controlled legislatures approved their own partisan maps as part of the once-a-decade redistricting process that follows the decennial U.S. Census.

Instead, Republicans have built a slight advantage with 46 states having completed redistricting. Only New Hampshire and Missouri have yet to approve new districts, while a state judge on Monday threw out the Republican-backed Kansas map as illegally partisan.

The New York plan, approved by Democratic super-majorities in the state’s legislature, would have given the party the edge in 22 of the state’s 26 seats, ousting half of the state’s eight Republican members of the U.S. House.

In its decision on Wednesday, the state Court of Appeals ordered the trial judge who first ruled the map illegal last month to take over the process of drawing a new map, with assistance from a special master.

The court wrote that the congressional primary elections will likely have to be moved from June to August to allow time for a new New York map.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Democratic state Senate majority said lawmakers were reviewing the decision.

State Senator George Borrello issued a statement saying, “Today’s ruling by the Court of Appeals is a major victory for New Yorkers who have repeatedly rejected a redistricting process tainted by politics and comprised of backroom deal making. Even the Democrat-appointed members of the court recognized the egregious gerrymandering of the congressional and legislative maps submitted by One Party Rule. The will of the people prevailed today.”

New York voters in 2014 approved a new redistricting commission that was intended to insulate the process from political considerations, as well as language expressly prohibiting districts drawn to favor one party over another, a strategy known as partisan gerrymandering.

But the commission failed to produce a consensus map after its members ended in stalemate along party lines, giving Democratic lawmakers the opportunity to step in.

A four-judge majority of the seven-member Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that Democrats violated 2014 constitutional amendments both procedurally, by taking over when the commission stalled, and substantively, by ignoring the ban on gerrymandering.

Two judges dissented, writing that they were not convinced the map was unconstitutional. A third judge agreed that lawmakers did not have the authority to substitute their own map for the work of the commission but did not opine on whether the districts were unconstitutionally partisan.

Democratic governors appointed all seven members of the court.

New York State Court of Appeals

New York State Court of Appeals judges heard arguments Tuesday on the issue of whether the new congressional district maps were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

NBC News reports the lawsuit brought by a group of Republican voters challenges the legality of the new district maps, which were widely seen as likely to help Democrats gain seats in Congress and knock some incumbent Republicans out of office.

The court’s decision — which could come at any time — could play a crucial role in the battle for control of the U.S. House, where Democrats now enjoy a thin majority.

Judges repeatedly asked the Democrats’ attorneys about what should happen next if the high court decides to strike down the maps. But they also seemed wary about overstepping their authority.

The Republicans contend in their lawsuit the Democrat-controlled Legislature violated provisions in the state constitution that barred the redrawing of districts for partisan gain. New York’s governor and legislative leaders deny they bent the rules, but two lower courts have already ruled the district maps were drafted specifically to give Democrats an advantage.

The Appellate Court Division in Rochester last week gave the Legislature a deadline of April 30 to come up with revised maps, or else leave the redrafting in the hands of a court-appointed expert. A third ruling against the maps could potentially upend the state’s planned congressional primary, now scheduled for late June.

Attorneys for Governor Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders from her party say the maps address population shifts and unite similar minority and geographical communities. The attorneys urged the judges to allow lawmakers to fix any errors with particular districts.

The Democrats have also criticized computer simulations run by an elections analyst who testified for the Republican plaintiffs that the maps were gerrymandered.

A politically appointed commission was supposed to draw the new maps following the 2020 Census. But that body, comprised of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, couldn’t reach consensus. The Democrat-led Legislature then stepped in and passed new maps of its own design.

Among other issues, the Court of Appeals was weighing whether the Legislature had the authority to do so. Some judges on Tuesday questioned whether Democrats followed the spirit of the reforms.

So far this election cycle, courts have intervened to block maps they found to be Republican gerrymanders in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and a Democrat gerrymander in Maryland. Such decisions have led to delayed primaries in North Carolina, Ohio and Maryland.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

The State Appellate Court in Rochester has issued a split decision on state redistricting, ruling Congressional districts are gerrymandered.

The Gothamist reports the court made the ruling April 21st that upheld a lower court’s ruling that threw out the Democrat-drawn congressional districts, finding they violated the state constitution’s ban on drawing district lines to benefit a particular party. But the appeals court reinstated New York’s newly drawn state Senate and Assembly district lines, which the trial court judge had also tossed on procedural grounds.

In a 3-2 decision, the Appellate Division ruled the Legislature’s Democratic majorities violated a clause in the state constitution – added in 2014 – that prohibits districts that are “drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.”

The ruling gives the state Legislature until April 30 to draw a new set of congressional lines for the June 28 primary, which could be moved back to account for the delay.

But the decision is not final: Democrats have vowed to immediately appeal, and the Court of Appeals, the state’s top court, will have final say. The seven-member court has already signaled it will hear the case on an expedited schedule, perhaps as soon as this week. All seven members were appointed by Democratic Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul.

For the June 28 primary, ballots must be printed by early May in order to comply with federal law requiring absentee ballots to arrive on time for military personnel overseas.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

CBS News reports an State Appeals Judge has declined to slow down New York’s primary elections amid a battle over the state’s redistricting plan, but said he would allow a lower court judge to hire an expert to draw up alternative congressional district maps in case the disputed ones ultimately get tossed.

The ruling by state Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley on Friday essentially hands the decision about the constitutionality of the redistricting plan over to a higher court, while creating one possible contingency for keeping the elections on schedule. Lindley sits on the state’s mid-level appeals court in Rochester.

Lindley’s ruling said the state board of elections can still accept petitions filed by candidates running for office in the new districts.

New York’s primary season was potentially upended the previous week when Judge Patrick McAllister declared that new political district maps heavily favoring Democrats had been drawn up illegally.
He ordered the Legislature to quickly redraw the district boundaries, or he would appoint a neutral expert to do it for them.

That ruling has been put on hold while the state appeals.

An appeals court panel has scheduled another hearing for April 20. The case could ultimately be decided by New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The primary has been scheduled for June 28.
In his ruling Friday, Lindley said he would allow McAllister to retain a neutral expert to draw up a new congressional map, if he wishes to do so, to be used if the Legislature’s maps are eventually struck down.

Lindley said the legislature could also draw up a contingency map, if it desires.

If they survive court challenges, the maps will mean re-election trouble for several Republican House members, while scrapping the maps could affect House Democrats’ efforts to maintain their majority.

The contested lines would give Democrats a strong majority of registered voters in 22 of the 26 U.S. congressional districts New York will have in 2023. Republicans, who now hold eight of the state’s 27 seats in the U.S. Congress, would only have an advantage in the remaining four districts.

The state is losing a congressional seat due to the 2020 Census data; New York fell just 89 residents short of holding onto all 27 of its districts.

Lawyers for the state Senate and Assembly assured Lindley on Thursday that the maps will pass constitutional muster.

Legislative leaders have said they don’t plan to redraw the maps, and defended them as reflecting population loss in former Republican upstate bastions.

Lindley said Thursday he was chiefly concerned about the prospect of allowing voters to pick candidates based on unconstitutional maps, and said New York must be ready for the possibility of congressional primaries delayed as late as August 23 or 24.

The state judge also struck down the Assembly and Senate maps on procedural grounds.

But Lindley did not allow backup plans for legislative maps in his Friday order. He said there was “less need” for a court master to draw up new legislative maps because the lower court didn’t find they were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

Congressional District Map Approved by NYS Legislature on Feb. 2, 2022

ABC News reports a New York appeals judge said he will “likely” rule Friday on whether to continue blocking a lower court ruling that declared the state’s new congressional and legislative district maps unconstitutional.

New York’s electoral landscape was thrown into question last week when a Republican trial court judge ordered the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the district boundaries.

State Judge Patrick McAllister gave state officials only until April 11 to submit new maps, saying the districts they had drawn up were illegally gerrymandered to favor Democrats.

The ruling came even as candidates have begun campaigning in the disputed districts ahead of a June party primary.

State Appellate Division Justice Stephen Lindley has already issued a temporary stay on that ruling. He said he’ll decide sometime after Thursday’s hearing whether to leave the stay in place for now, pending more legal action in the weeks ahead.

He could also lift the stay, which would put state lawmakers on an incredibly tight deadline to come up with new maps. Judge McAllister has said if lawmakers don’t meet his deadline, he would appoint his own expert to draw up new maps. The state would likely cover the cost of a special master. Courts sometimes designate an attorney not directly involved with a case, known as a special master, to address such concerns.

Lawyers for the Assembly and Senate argued Thursday that the ruling should be blocked for at least 30 days, and criticized the trial judge’s decision to strike down largely uncontroversial Assembly maps.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Republican voters demanded that lawmakers or a court master start working up new maps soon.

Judge Lindley said his primary concern is ensuring New York is ready if appellate judges agree that the new Congressional maps — and potentially Senate maps — are unconstitutional and must be redrawn.

Lindley said that back-up maps could be tossed if the appellate court decides the contested maps pass constitutional muster. He said New York could hold its federal primary as late as around August 23 or 24.

Thursday’s hearing likely won’t be the final word on the main issue: whether the new maps are so politically biased toward Democrats that they violate the state constitution.

The arguments are “just a skirmish along the way,” according to former U.S. Rep. John Faso, a Republican who has been helping muster support for the lawsuit challenging the maps’ legality.

A hearing for more arguments has already been scheduled for April 20.