The New York City Council district map will remain unchanged ahead of the upcoming June 27th primary election, a Manhattan Supreme Court justice ruled.
Manhattan State Supreme Court justice Ericka Edwards on Friday rejected a request from a group of Queens voters to halt the election and order the city to redraw the district lines.
Edwards issued her ruling more than a month and half after both attorneys for a group of Queens voters and the City Law Department met in court for oral arguments. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), which filed the suit on behalf of the voters, argued that the city used the wrong legal standard to determine “fair and effective” representation for racial and language minority groups when drawing new lines during the redistricting process last year.
AALDEF argued that the NYC Districting Commission failed to protect voters by not creating a new opportunity district for Asian American voters in the neighborhoods of Richmond Hill and South Ozone Park in Queens, areas that are home to a growing community of Indo-Caribbean and South Asian voters.
Instead, the organization argues that the Districting Commission split the community across three Council districts — 28, 29 and 32 — and diluted their ability to achieve effective representation of the community’s choice.
In her ruling, Edwards noted that she could only determine if the Districting Commission approved its final plan in a manner that violated legal procedures, was “arbitrary and capricious” or “affected by an error in law.” She could not weigh in on whether she agreed with the final map itself. She said the plaintiffs failed to make the case on any of those grounds.
“Although the court always endeavors to protect the rights of racial and language minorities against voting rights violations, here, Petitioners simply failed to demonstrate the merits of their claims,” Edwards wrote in her decision.
Additionally, she said she was persuaded by…
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