A judge in upstate New York rejected congressional district maps recently drawn, declared them unconstitutional and ordered the Democrat-controlled Legislature to redraw them, before 11 April.
Early February, fourteen plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Governor Kathy Hochul and Democratic legislators, a few hours after they approved in Albany a redesign of the electoral map of New York called to favor the presence of their party in the national Capitol.
“Part of the problem is that these maps were nullified…for not following the constitutional process of having bipartisan maps presented by the . The second issue was that the submitted map of Congress was found to be rigged,” Steuben County Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister wrote in his decision to 18 pages published yesterday afternoon.
The judge also rejected the state Senate and Assembly maps in his ruling. “We intend to appeal this decision,” Governor Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James said in a joint statement shortly afterward, the New York Post reported.
Judge McAllister said lawmakers have until 11 April to submit new maps and if they are still found to be illegal, the court will appoint an expert to create the new ones, paid for by state taxpayers.
“The judge determined that they acted unconstitutionally in the process and that is why they discarded the maps of the United States Senate, Assembly and House of Representatives,” celebrated John Faso, a former Republican congressman from the Hudson Valley involved in the demand. “The implication is that the people won and the politicians lost.”