In a high-stakes decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 on Tuesday that the state must pass a new congressional map for 2024, finding in Democratic plaintiffs' favor that the process that led to the current court-drawn map's adoption in 2022 failed to adhere to state constitutional reforms passed by voters in 2014. The decision is a huge win for Democrats because it could ultimately allow the overwhelmingly Democratic legislature in Albany to draw a new gerrymander, putting up to six Republican-held seats in even deeper danger.
The new ruling was made possible by a personnel shift on New York's top court: in 2022, the same court had struck down Democrats' map as an illegal gerrymander in violation of the state constitution. But the author of that 4-3 decision, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, subsequently retired and was replaced in this case by a judge who sided with Democrats. In other words, just as Republicans' takeover of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2022 cleared the way for Republicans to brutalize Democrats with a new gerrymander in 2023, the
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