All bets are off --- it's most likely that there will be no June primaries --- NYS Court of Appeals 4-to-3 votes for chaos and confusion in NYS politics for 2022

 

NY's highest court says  >>>  a "special master" and the NYS courts can get NYS  a new set of US congressional and NYS senate lines for an August 2022 primary

Big win for a few GOP incumbents in NYS  ---  Bad day for lots of Democrats

Kathy Hochul tops the list for very, very sorry Democrats

It's either the hidden hand of Andrew Cuomo  ---  OR  ---  Cuono's final revenge  ---  OR POSSIBLY  ---  It's the prequel to Cuomo's 2022  [Even] Bigger and Better Tricks Tour 

In a startling move, New York's top court, the NYS Court of Appeals, today rejected the congressional and NYS Senate maps drawn by the Democrat-controlled NYS Legislature as unconstitutional. It was a signal victory for Republicans and conservatives throughout New York State.

The 4-3 ruling most likely will negate any of the scheduled June primaries and force lawmakers back to the deal with the political mess that the NYS High Court created. 

The Court of Appeals ruled that "the enactment of the congressional and Senate maps by the legislature was procedurally unconstitutional, and the congressional map is also substantively unconstitutional as drawn with impermissible partisan purpose, leaving the state without constitutional district lines for use in the 2022 primary and general elections."

The ruling is an unequivocal victory for NYS and national Republicans who had challenged the maps in state court on the grounds that the new districts obviously favored Democrats, and thus violated the state's constitutional ban on partisan-based  redistricting. 

The creation of new district lines will be now be in the hands of a "special master" appointed by the NYS Supreme Court earlier this month. According to today's Court of Appeals ruling  ---  "With judicial supervision and the support of a neutral expert designated a special master, there is sufficient time for the adoption of new district lines....  We are confident that, in consultation with the Board of Elections, Supreme Court can swiftly develop a schedule to facilitate an August primary election, allowing time for the adoption of new constitutional maps...." 

Early voting for New York's primary had been scheduled to begin June 18, and throughout the state petitions had already been submitted  ---  all based on the maps approved by the NYS Legislature and signed into law by Governor Hochul earlier this year. However, today's Court of Appeals ruling raised the possibility of moving the primary to August as a matter of practical necessity. 

At the moment, this ruling by the court did not appear to affect the maps drawn for the NYS Assembly; and in addition, the court's decision was silent as to whether the congressional and legislative  primary voting should be split from the statewide primary contests still-now-scheduled in June for governor and lieutenant governor.

As Oliver said to Stanley  ---  "Here's another fine mess that you've gotten us into".....