The Independent View: NY Redistricting Update

New York still has not created the new redistricting maps required by the 2010 Census.

Governor Cuomo, whose approval is required to pass a redistricting plan has taken the unequivocal step of promising to veto any redistricting plan passed under the current, non-independent redistricting process. On February 17, 2011, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office released a statement acknowledging that “Governor Cuomo has pledged that if an agreement on permanent reform of the redistricting process is not reached, he will veto the redistricting plans passed by the Legislature if those plans have been developed under the existing process and prioritize partisan and incumbent interests over the voters’ interests.”

On July 6, 2011, Governor Cuomo reiterated his pledge, stating, “I will veto a plan that is not independent or a plan that’s partisan . . . That’s what I’ve said all along. That’s what the people of the state of New York overwhelmingly support.”

And on September 30, 2011, when asked whether he would veto the redistricting boundaries being drafted by the legislature, Governor Cuomo responded “yes,” and added that he: believe[s] the process is not independent, and I don’t see how a non-independent process can come up with an independent product. I therefore would veto a bill that was not an independent product. It would then go to the courts. Period. And that’s what I have said, and that’s what I’m sticking by.

Then this week, The Supreme Court delivered a unanimous drubbing on redistricting.

In Perry v. Peres, the Justices rejected a series of election maps redrawn by a lower court in Texas to replace a map created by the Texas legislature to account for the population growth and four new Congressional seats. The Supreme Court noted that the lower court had "exceeded its mission" and it sent the maps back to the drawing board.

In its decision, the Justices said redistricting is "primarily the duty and responsibility of the State," and that when faced with drawing maps, a court should take it cues from the version done by the lawmakers, with whom authority properly lies.

The Justices wrote ""faced with the necessity of drawing district lines by Judaical order, a court should be guided by the legislative policies underlying a state plan as long as those policies do not violate the Voting Rights Act or the Constitution."