Democrats had vigorously contested both charges, arguing in court that the Congressional and state Senate lines they drafted were legal and broadly reflected changing populations in New York. However, the decision of the Court of Appeal was final.
The judges ordered Mr. Cervas to quickly recruit replacements. Justice McAllister then postponed the congressional and state Senate primaries from June to August to accommodate the changes.
Democratic lawmakers complained bitterly that they weren’t allowed to try to fix the cards themselves and didn’t receive more input in the expedited replacement process.
Judge McAllister allowed only one hearing at a courthouse in rural Bath, New York, five hours from New York, for voters and interest groups to give their opinions. Mr. Cervas, a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University who also advised Pennsylvania lawmakers on the development of new maps this year, worked quickly, delivering new maps in just weeks.
Mr. Cervas’ map removed one seat from the Upstate New York House altogether, to reduce the state’s delegation from 27 members to 26. New York had to get rid of the seat after its population failed to keep pace with growth in other states in the 2020 census, continuing a trend that has been going on for decades.
Notably, Mr. Cervas also tweaked one of the most dramatic changes Democrats implemented before the courts invalidated their map. The Legislature had merged ultra-liberal Park Slope into a historically rooted neighborhood on Staten Island, turning a swing New York neighborhood currently held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, into an excellent Democratic pick-up opportunity. The lines proposed by Mr. Cervas still take the district to South Brooklyn, but would add less liberal territory.
At no time did the courts invalidate the new Assembly District lines that had been passed by the Legislative Assembly with bipartisan support.
Last week, Justice McAllister rejected an attempt by several politicians to intervene in the ongoing legal dispute to try to have those maps invalidated as well. The politicians filed a new lawsuit in Manhattan state court on Monday to try to re-present their case in a different venue, but it was unclear they would get a more sympathetic hearing.
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