The decision is a blow to Democrats, who saw the restructuring in New York as one of the best chances to shape the peripherals in their favor. New York lost a seat in Congress after the 2020 census, and the excluded map would give Democrats an advantage in 22 of the state’s 26 constituencies.
Two lower courts had already ruled that the charter, which was drafted and approved by Democrats in the New York legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, was an unconstitutional surgeon.
On Wednesday, critics concluded that the charter was “designed with impermissible partisan intent” and “to discourage competition”.
Former United States lawmaker John Faso, one of the Republicans at the forefront of the controversy, called the ruling “a landmark decision in New York.”
“Today’s ruling by the Court really sets an indicator for future legislatures to explicitly follow the exact procedure contained in the constitutional amendment,” Faso said. “And that will force future legislatures, whether they are controlled by Republicans or Democrats, whether they have a majority or a small majority, to co-operate.”
In Judgment 4-3, the court also concluded that the procedure in which the congressional charter was drafted “violated” the state constitution. A 2014 amendment to the New York Constitution created an independent restructuring committee that was tasked with drafting a bill for Congress and presenting it to the state legislature for a vote. Following the failure of the first series of regional committees in the legislature, the committee did not submit a second draft. At that point, the state legislature drafted the most excluded map.
Instead of allowing the Democratic-led state legislature to pass a new map, Wednesday’s ruling returned the matter to lower court judge Patrick McCallister, allowing him to work with a special master to design the map. McCallister has already appointed Jonathan Serbas as special captain and said the new congressional charter will be issued by May 24th.
The New York State Electoral Council is beginning preparations to move some of the state primaries to consider the Congressional Charter and the Senate Charter of the rejected state.
“The staff of the State Board is ready to assist the Supreme Court in any way we are called upon to rapidly develop a new Political Calendar for the August US Senate and House Rally by-elections,” said John Conklin, Director of Public Information. for the State Electoral Council, he said in a statement.
New York is one of four states that do not have active congressional maps, joining Missouri, New Hampshire and Kansas, whose map was blocked Monday.
This story has been updated with additional information.
