Last month, the New York State Court of Appeals took a giant step backwards on the matter of congressional redistricting when in the case of Hoffman v. New York State Independent Redistricting Commission (— NY3d —, 2023 NY Slip Op 06344 [2023]) it returned power to the legislature over this process. In doing so, the court gives the state legislature another bite at the redistricting apple and in the process eviscerated its own landmark decision last year in Harkenrider v. Hochul (38 NY3d 494 [2022]).
In Harkenrider, the court found that the legislature violated the strict procedure governing redistricting set forth by the people in 2014 when they adopted a constitutional amendment reforming that process. The court further found that legislative Democrats had engaged in illegal partisan gerrymandering when they adopted a redistricting plan with no GOP input that would have resulted in Republicans winning only four of 26 U.S. House seats.
