The fight for control of Congress will face a crucial early battle in November when the state Court of Appeals will hear arguments on whether New York’s congressional boundaries should be redrawn.
On Nov. 15, the state’s highest court is scheduled to take up the consequential redistricting case that has the ability to heavily influence New York’s congressional boundaries during elections next year and for nearly the next decade.
A lower court ruled in favor of Republicans who argued the boundaries redrawn by a court after Democrats had improperly created them — and in ways that favored their party — should remain in place. But a split decision by a mid-level appellate court in Albany recently reversed that ruling in favor of the Democrats.
Now the Court of Appeals will again review the case, after it issued a ruling 17 months ago striking down the Democrat-drawn political boundaries for the state Senate and Congress that had been established by the Democrat-controlled Senate. Their decision affirmed lower court rulings that the new boundaries were intentionally gerrymandered for political gain.