Appellate court favors redrawing New York’s congressional district lines

The decision will now be appealed by Republicans to New York’s highest court. If the ruling is upheld by the Court of Appeals, it could provide a significant boost to Democrats as they seek to regain control of the U.S. Congress next year.

In 2022, the Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 that the process by which the Democratic-controlled State Legislature drew congressional lines favoring Democrats was illegal. Because of the ruling, the lines were instead drawn by a court-appointed special master, who drew more competitive districts. Those redrawn districts and the success of Republican candidates in New York, where the GOP flipped four seats, were key to the party narrowly winning control of Congress last November.

Congressional Democrats funded a lawsuit to reopen the line-drawing process for 2024. On Thursday, the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court in Albany found that the court-drawn congressional map for the 2022 elections was only temporary. The majority ruled that new lines should now be drawn by a bipartisan, 10-member state commission.

“This determination honors the constitutional enactments as the means of providing a robust, fair and equitable procedure for the determination of voting districts in New York,” the appellate division’s presiding justice, Elizabeth Garry, wrote in the majority opinion on Thursday.