NEW NY REDISTRICTING MAPS FATE STILL BEING PONDERED. JUNE 28 PRIMARY MAY OR MAY NOT PROCEED UNDER NEWLY DRAWN DISTRICTS. JUDGE McAllister CAN PROCEED WITH ORDERING ALTERNATIVE MAP PENDING APPELLATE COURT DECISION ON NEW REDRAWN DISTRICTS VIABILITY APRIL 20. NY COURT OF APPEALS MAY GET THE CONTROVERSY NEXT. | WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR---65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. From New York State Appellate Court, Fourth Department. April 11, 2022:

Appellate Division of the 4th Department Judge Stephen Lindley allowed the New York State Primaries to proceed under the newly drawn districts April 28, granting a motion to stay the denial of the newly drawn districts that were presented in February until April 20. Judge Lindley wrote:

“The Legislature may begin redrawing the map right now if it chooses to do so,” he said. “Or the Legislature may choose to do nothing and risk the possibility of having to live with the map drawn by Judge McAllister’s neutral experts should respondents lose before the Court of Appeals and lack sufficient time to propose a substitute map that withstands constitutional scrutiny after exhaustion of appellate remedies.”

The motion to stay was filed by Governor Kathy Hochul, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, and Assembly Leader Carl Heastie, in reaction to New York Supreme Court Judge Patrick McAllister’s decision the maps were a violation of state constitution procedure and clearly gerrymandered.

The full panel of Appellate Judges of the 4th Department will meet April 20 to consider the constitutionality issue and gerrymandering issue of the controversial remaps of New York Election Districts.

Pending the Appellate Court decision, if favorable to the 14 plaintiffs who filed the initial court action complaining the districts were unfairly drawn to eliminate 4 Republican held seats, would most likely be appealed by the state to the higher Court of Appeals, or by the plaintiffs or the respondents(the state) if the Appellate Court rules against them.

The result at the present time is the June 28 primary will appear to proceed under the new district redrawing under dispute, or it might not.

**Professor Stephen Rolandi, (left) an observer familiar with the legal procedures in such cases who discussed the case in an interview last week sees a remedy being worked on:**

“My sense is that the courts in New York, specifically the State Supreme Court in the 7th Judicial District (Steuben County) and the 4th Department (Appellate Division, Rochester) are attempting to fashion a solution to the problem caused by the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) and the State Legislature in drawing Congressional and state legislature district lines that appear to heavily favor the Democrats in this year’s election. Such a solution hopefully can prevent these elections being run not only this year, but next year (2023) as well. Time will tell.”