The New York State Court of Appeals rejected the congressional district maps drawn up by the Democrat-controlled state legislature on Wednesday.
The court, which is the highest court in the state, ruled 4-3 in favor of a complaint brought by Republican voters against the district maps. The state legislature’s proposal would have altered three currently Republican districts to make them more favorable to Democrats.
“The enactment of the congressional and senate maps by the legislature was procedurally unconstitutional, and the congressional map is also substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose,” according to the ruling by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore.
The court said new district maps will be drawn by an individual appointed by the court, instead of the state legislature, in accordance with a ruling by the state Supreme Court, which is lower than the Appeals Court.
The court backs a redistricting plan to be executed “with the assistance of a neutral expert, designated a special master, following submissions from the parties, the legislature, and any interested stakeholders who wish to be heard,” the ruling states.
In addition, the court noted that it will “likely be necessary” to move congressional and Senate primaries to August in order to allow time to revise district maps.
Other lower courts have previously ruled in favor of Republicans who claimed that the state legislature’s district maps were unconstitutional.
“The decision today from the Court of Appeals affirms our position that under One-Party Rule, Albany politicians engaged in obvious partisan gerrymandering, violating the State Constitution,” New York Senate minority leader Robert Ortt, a Republican, said in a statement. “Despite a clear directive from the voters of New York, Albany’s ruling class decided to put their political survival ahead of the will of the people.”
The decision in New York comes a month after a Maryland judge rejected that state’s new district map, drawn by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, as “an extreme gerrymander.” Maryland governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, later signed a revised district map into law, calling it a “tremendous victory for democracy and for free and fair elections in Maryland.”