Harkenrider v. Hochul

In 2014, New York voters approved a state constitutional amendment establishing an independent redistricting commission (“commission”) to draw and propose state legislative and congressional districts. 

The commission, consisting of 10 members, was appointed as follows:  

• Two nominated by the president pro tempore of the state senate  
• Two nominated by the speaker of the state assembly  
• Two nominated by the state senate minority leader  
• Two nominated by the state assembly minority leader  
• Two members nominated by at least five of the eight members nominated by the legislative leaders. These members may not have been members of the state’s two largest political parties in the past five years.  

The amendment also provided that if both houses of the state legislature were controlled by the same party, at least seven of the ten members, including two of the legislative nominees, were required to approve any proposed maps sent to the legislature.  

If the commission could not agree on maps before January 1 of the first midterm election year after the Census, the map(s) with the highest number of votes would be sent to the legislature. Both houses of the state legislature were then required to vote on the state legislative districts and congressional districts without amendment. If the legislature passed the maps, the governor was required to either approve or veto them. 

If the legislature rejected the maps or the governor vetoed them, the commission was required to submit another map to the legislature within 15 days, no later than February 28 of the same year. The legislature was then required to vote on the new maps without amending them and, if approved, present them to the governor for signature.  

If the maps were rejected again, the legislature could enact its own maps by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected in each house, so long as the chambers’ leaders were from the same party and they complied with the New York constitution’s provisions, which included the following requirements: 

• Maps must not result in the denial or abridgment of racial or language minority voting rights or have the purpose of doing so. 
• Districts shall be drawn so that, based on the totality of the circumstances, racial or minority language groups do not have less opportunity to participate in the political process than other members of the electorate and to elect representatives of their choice. 
• To the extent practicable, districts shall contain an equal number of inhabitants.  
• Districts must be contiguous and compact in form as practicable. 
• Districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.  
• Districts shall maintain cores of existing districts, of pre-existing political subdivisions (including counties, cities, and towns), and communities of interest should be considered.  

In the 2020 elections, the Democratic Party won a two-thirds majority in the New York state assembly and state senate. Subsequently, during the redistricting process, the commission deadlocked on proposing state legislative and congressional maps. The maps with the highest vote totals were then sent to the legislature, which voted them down. The commission deadlocked again and failed to submit a second set of maps to the legislature before the deadline. In response, the legislature imposed its own maps on a party-line vote, with all Democrats voting in favor. Governor Kathy Hochul then signed the new maps into law. 

Subsequently, on Feb. 3, 2022, several plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the Steuben County Supreme Court, asserting the legislature had failed to follow the state constitution by passing new maps before the commission proposed a second set of maps and new congressional districts were an illegal partisan gerrymander. 

On March 31, 2022, the court struck down the state senate, state assembly, and congressional maps, ruling that the legislature’s process in passing all three new maps violated the constitution and that the congressional maps were a partisan gerrymander. The court ordered the legislature to submit, for its approval, new state senate, state assembly, and congressional districts with bipartisan approval by April 11, 2022. If the legislature failed to do so, the court would retain experts to draw the new maps. Defendants then appealed to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court of the Fourth Judicial Department. 

On April 18, 2022, the League of Women Voters of New York (LWV New York) filed an amicus brief in the Appellate Division. The brief argued that under the state constitution, the judiciary was required to step in and draw new maps after the commission failed to do so and that the legislature had no authority to step in and impose its own maps when the commission failed to propose a second set in time. LWV New York, therefore, urged the appellate division to overturn the trial court’s order for the legislature to submit new maps and instead order it to hire an independent expert to draw new maps.  

On April 21, 2022, the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court of the Fourth Judicial Department partially affirmed the state trial court’s ruling, declaring the congressional maps were an illegal partisan gerrymander and ordering the legislature to draw a compliant map by April 30, 2022. The Appellate Division reversed the trial court’s decision, invalidating the state senate and assembly maps, the process used to enact them, and the provision requiring bipartisan approval of new maps.  

Defendants then appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. LWV New York moved to file a supplemental letter brief on April 24, 2022, again asserting the legislature was not allowed to step in and pass its own maps after the Commission failed to submit a second set of maps and argued for a judicial remedy instead. 

On April 27, 2022, the New York Court of Appeals issued its ruling, stating that the legislature violated the state constitution when passing the new maps and declaring the congressional and state senate maps procedurally invalid. The court also ruled that the congressional maps were unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. The case was remanded to the trial court for remedial proceedings, which resulted in a nonpartisan special master drawing new state senate and congressional districts for the 2022 elections. 

LWV New York was represented in this matter by Howell, Shuster, and Goldberg. 

Postscript: After the 2022 elections, the New York Court of Appeals ruled in a separate lawsuit that the 2022 congressional maps were limited remedial maps for that election. The commission was required to submit a second set of maps to the legislature for approval or rejection. The case summary for that case is linked below.