The New York Constitution grants the state supreme court, which is the state’s trial-level court rather than its high court, original jurisdiction over challenges to congressional and legislative maps. See N.Y. Const. art. III, § 5; N.Y. Unconsol. Law § 4221. The New York Court of Appeals—the state’s highest court—has interpreted this grant to include partisan gerrymandering claims. See Harkenrider v. Hochul, 197 N.E.3d 437, 445 (N.Y. 2022).
In 2014, New Yorkers approved a ballot measure that amended the state constitution to include an express anti-gerrymandering provision, which bars maps from “discourag[ing] competition or . . . purpose[ly] . . . favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.” N.Y. Const. art. III, § 4(c)(5). A plaintiff “b[ears] the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the congressional [or legislative] districts were drawn” in violation of this provision ‘with a particular impermissible intent or motive[.]’” Harkenrider, 197 N.E.3d at 452. Applying this standard, the Court of Appeals upheld lower court rulings striking down New York’s congressional map for the 2020 redistricting cycle. According to the court, “invidious intent could be demonstrated directly or circumstantially through proof of a partisan process excluding participation by the minority party and evidence of discriminatory results (i.e., lines that impactfully and unduly favor or disfavor a political party or reduce competition).” Id. The court credited the lower courts’ reliance on such evidence when striking down the congressional map, including statistical outlier analysis, the fact that one party dominated the process for fashioning the map, and a comparison of the plan at issue with that from the previous redistricting cycle. Id. at 453.
The New York Constitution explicitly contemplates the implementation of a court-ordered map to remedy an illegal partisan gerrymander. See N.Y. Const. art. III, § 4(e) (“The process for redistricting congressional and state legislative districts established by this section and sections five and five-b of this article shall govern redistricting in this state except to the extent that a court is required to order the adoption of, or changes to, a redistricting plan as a remedy for a violation of law.”). Under this provision, the Court of Appeals ordered the trial court, with the assistance of a special master and “submissions from the parties, the legislature, and any interested stakeholders who wish to be heard,” to adopt remedial congressional and state senate maps for the 2022 election cycle. Harkenrider, 197 N.E.3d at 455–56. The trial court in turn instructed the special master “to fully adhere to all the provisions of the New York State Constitution, such as the strict equal population requirement for Congress and the block-on-the-border rule and town-on-the border rule for the state senate.” Harkenrider v. Hochul, No. E2022-0116CV, 2022 WL 1951609 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 20, 2022), at *5 (Report of the Special Master) (footnote omitted), amended by 2022 WL 20527506 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. June 02, 2022). The court also directed the special master “to draw proposed maps in a fashion that was blind to the location of incumbents.” Id. The trial court ultimately adopted the plans produced by the special master with slight revisions. Id. at *4.
Though Harkenrider settled the issue of which maps would be used for the 2022 election cycle, it left open the question of whether those maps would be used for the remainder of the decade. In Matter of Anthony S. Hoffmann, No. 90, 2023 WL 8590407 (N.Y. Dec. 12, 2023), the Court of Appeals required New York State’s Independent Redistricting Commission to prepare a revised congressional map for the remainder of the decade and submit it to the legislature by February 28, 2024. Petitioners initially sought similar relief for the state senate map, but then dropped that claim from their petition. Hoffmann v. N.Y. State Indep. Redistricting Comm’n, No. CV-22-2265, slip op. at 4 n.3 (N.Y. App. Div. Aug. 18, 2023). Unless there is another court challenge, the interim, court-drawn senate map will remain in place for the remainder of the decade. In Nichols v. Hochul, 181 N.Y.S.3d 559 (N.Y. App. Div. 2023), an intermediate appeals court ordered the Commission to prepare a revised state assembly map and submit it to the legislature. The legislature approved that map, and the governor signed it into law, which means it will be in use until the next redistricting cycle. Zach Williams, New York state Assembly district lines approved — signed into law by Hochul, N.Y. Post (Apr. 24, 2023), https://nypost.com/2023/04/24/new-york-state-assembly-district-lines-approved-signed-into-law-by-hochul/.