NY Democrats vs. Democracy

The state Appellate Division just got it half-right on the Legislature’s gerrymander, correctly blasting the US House-seat maps as drawn expressly “to discourage competition and favor Democrats” and thus violating New York’s Constitution.

But the court left the state Senate maps intact, though those are as skewed and directly benefit the Democratic legislators who dictated them.

Even so, the party that loves to mouth pieties about defending democracy suffered a stinging judicial slap over its blatant bid to disenfranchise voters and end-run the state Constitution. Yet that might not be enough.

The case heads next week to the Court of Appeals, where the political interests backing the gerrymander will challenge the ruling against the House maps, while the attorneys repping the voters who brought suit in the first place will argue — again, correctly — that the Senate maps need to go, too.

Andrew Cuomo-appointed Dems utterly dominate the Court of Appeals, so cross your fingers that its members decide as judges, not as politicians.

The ruling on the Senate maps is crucial: If that gerrymander lives, it all but ensures near-permanent Democratic control in Albany, leaving the state forever victim to the high-taxing, free-spending, crime-loving policies driving people elsewhere in droves.

Look, this isn’t hard: If the House maps violate the Constitution, so do the Senate maps. That’s why even the pro-gerrymander lawyers had to argue technicalities (like claiming voters have no right to sue over the maps) and admit that “the process [creating the maps] was along partisan lines.” That’s why Judge Patrick McAllister was correct in tossing both sets of maps last month.

Letting these maps stand would be a crime against the people of New York. If the Court of Appeals signs off on the gerrymander, it’s

declaring itself nothing but a bunch of Democratic hacks camouflaged in black robes.