Gov. Kathy Hochul’s latest picks for New York’s highest court could play a key role in deciding whether the state will rip up its congressional district maps and start over — a move that could help determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024 and beyond.
Hochul on Monday nominated Associate Judge Rowan Wilson, a liberal, to take over as chief judge of the state Court of Appeals. At the same time, Hochul said she will tap Caitlin Halligan, the former state solicitor general, to take Wilson’s current position should he be confirmed by the state Senate.
The nominations come as a Democrat-led appeal challenging the state’s congressional maps continues to work its way through the courts. Democrats, who lost multiple New York seats last year en route to losing control of the House, are fighting to have a state panel redraw the state’s 26 congressional districts. Those boundaries were drawn by an independent expert last year. Republicans performed well under the current map and are fighting to keep it in place.
Should the case make it to the Court of Appeals as many legal observers expect, Halligan could be in a position to cast the deciding vote. The other six Court of Appeals judges — which includes Wilson, who has been on the court since 2017 — split on a similar case last year that forced the removal of a set of Democrat-friendly maps….