New York is told to redraw congressional districts
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s highest court on Tuesday ordered the state to draw new congressional districts ahead of the 2024 elections, giving Democrats a potential advantage in what is expected to be a battleground for control of the US House.
The 4-3 decision from the New York Court of Appeals could have major ramifications as Democrats angle for more favorable district lines in the state next year. Republicans, who won control of the House after flipping seats in New York, sought to keep the map in place.
The state’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission will now be tasked with coming up with new districts, which will then go before the Democrat-controlled Legislature for approval. The court ordered the commission to file a map no later than Feb. 28.
“In 2014, the voters of New York amended our Constitution to provide that legislative districts be drawn by an Independent Redistricting Commission,” Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson wrote for the majority. “The Constitution demands that process, not districts drawn by courts.”
The ruling is an early, but important, step in Democrats’ plans to retake a handful of congressional districts in New York seen as vital to winning a House majority.
“Today’s decision is a win for democracy and particularly the people of New York. We are eager for the Independent Redistricting Commission to get back to work to create a new, fair congressional map — through the process New York voters intended,” said Representative Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Democrats sued to have last year’s maps thrown out after their party lost seats in the New York City suburbs and handed control of the House to Republicans.
The case came after Democrats in the state bungled the redistricting process for the 2022 elections, and along with what many considered political miscalculations at the top of the state ticket, drew blame for the party’s loss of the House.
The maps used last year were supposed to be drawn by the state’s commission. But the commission, made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, failed to reach a consensus and eventually gave up.
The state Legislature then stepped in and drew its own map, which was set up in a way to give Democrats a major edge by cramming Republican voters into a few super districts, diluting GOP voting power in the rest of the state. A legal challenge stopped the Democrats’ map from moving forward and the Court of Appeals ruled that the state didn’t follow proper procedure in adopting the maps.
Instead, the court had an independent expert draw a new set of lines that, along with strong turnout from the GOP, led to Republicans flipping seats in the New York City suburbs and winning control of the House in 2022. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Election worker describes trauma in Giuliani trial
WASHINGTON — Scared for her life after Rudy Giuliani and other Donald Trump allies falsely accused her of fraud, former Georgia election worker Wandrea “Shaye” Moss told jurors Tuesday she seldom leaves her home, suffers from panic attacks, and battles nightmares brought on by a barrage of threatening and racist messages.
Moss took the witness stand on the second day of the defamation trial that will determine how much the former New York City mayor will have to pay Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, for spreading a conspiracy theory that they rigged the state’s 2020 election results. Moss noted that Giuliani just a day earlier — after the trial began — repeated the false claims about her and her mother, saying they were “engaged in changing votes.”
“I personally cannot repair my reputation at the moment because your client is still lying on me and ruining my reputation further,” she told Giuliani’s lawyer.
She sobbed as she testified that her life was turned upside down by the accusations, though they were quickly debunked by state officials. Her attorneys displayed a few of the graphic messages accusing her of treason and more that she received after Giuliani in December 2020 falsely accused workers at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta of tampering with ballots.
Moss told jurors that she was a bubbly, outgoing person before the conspiracy theories began, but since then she’s been stuck in a lonely cycle of crying and nightmares.
“I’m most scared of my son finding me and or my mom hanging in front of our house on a tree having to get news at school that his mom was killed,” the 39-year-old said. At one point in January 2021, she said, someone came to her grandmother’s door threatening to make a “citizen arrest.”
Moss and her mother are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages from Giuliani in the defamation case at the same time he’s preparing to defend himself against criminal charges in a separate case in Georgia. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case that accuses him and others of scheming to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in the state. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The judge overseeing the defamation case has already found Giuliani liable, and Giuliani has acknowledged in court that he made public comments falsely claiming Freeman and Moss committed fraud while counting ballots. The only issue remaining in the trial is the amount of damages Giuliani will have to pay the women. ASSOCIATED PRESS
DeSantis lawyers seek dismissal of Disney suit
TALLAHASSEE — Attorneys for Governor Ron DeSantis are asking a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss a free speech lawsuit filed by Disney after the Florida governor took over Walt Disney World’s governing district in retaliation for the company opposing a state law that banned classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades.
The planned hearing is the first time oral arguments are being made in federal court in Tallahassee over Disney’s claim that DeSantis used state powers to punish the entertainment giant in violation of the First Amendment. The governor’s attorneys are arguing that the case should be dismissed, claiming DeSantis is immune since he doesn’t enforce any of the laws that removed supervision of the government from Disney supporters. ASSOCIATED PRESS