Loss For Redistricing Advocates
(AP) New York’s top court last Thursday rejected a constitutional challenge by state Senate Democrats who claim Republicans improperly used two different formulas to redraw the election map that created a 63rd Senate district upstate.
The decision that could cement election district lines drawn by the Senate’s Republican majority for the next 10 years was called a loss for efforts to overhaul legislative redistricting after two years of promises by Republicans and Democrats to create independently drawn lines.
The Court of Appeals, which took the case on an expedited basis, unanimously upheld a trial-level judge who found that using the different formulas to establish voting boundaries was not unconstitutional. The seven judges concluded “consistent application” of one formula is not required, and lawmakers have latitude in carrying out their constitutional authority to add Senate districts based on population shifts documented by the census.
“It is not our task to address the wisdom of the methods employed by the Legislature in accomplishing their constitutional mandate,” the court said. “Rather, here, we consider only whether the methods chosen amount to ‘a gross and deliberate violation of the plain intent of the Constitution.'”
Republican lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly struck a deal with Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo to approve new election maps following the 2010 census, maps that critics say were unfairly drawn to help protect their political power. Street; John Robert of the Bronx, former district manager of Bronx Community Board 2; Roxanne J. Persaud of Canarsie, Brooklyn, registrar of St. Francis College; and Robert W. Hart of Staten Island, who works in the digital media publishing industry.
In addition to Ognibene, the Republican caucus also named to the panel Kamillah M. Hanks of Staten Island, former executive director of the Downtown Staten Island Council, and Marc Wurzel of Manhattan, general counsel and assistant secretary of the Grand Central Partnership.
The independent commission will be tasked to realign the Councilmanic districts based on demographic and population changes in the 2010 Census. Once the full commission is seated, the panel will meet to begin the process, including reviewing current laws and Census data, the Council noted.
Public hearings will be held in each of the five boroughs to discuss potential redistricting plans. Once the commission has developed a final redistricting plan, it will be sent to the City Council, then the U.S. Department of Justice, for approval before elections take place in 2013.
