By Jeff Wice & Alexis Marking
This week- Nassau County Loses Effort to Move Redistricting Case to Federal Court, Learn About American Community Survey Data on January 28th
N.Y. VOTING RIGHTS ACT LIGITATION
Nassau County Legislature: Coads et al. v. Nassau County & NY Communities for Change (NYCC) v. Nassau County
On December 23rd, Nassau County asked the Eastern District federal court to “remove” the two pending redistricting and voting rights-related actions to the federal court. On December 26th, the plaintiffs jointly filed a motion seeking an expedited remand of these actions back to state court. On December 29th, the defendants filed their opposition briefs to the motion to remand.
In response to these filings on December 31st, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District released a decision granting \ the plaintiffs’ motion to remand the case back to state court.
The federal court ruled that the notices of removal, “which are premised on the claim that the ‘federal theory’ establishes federal question jurisdiction under Grable,” are untimely. Nassau County argues that their notices of removal were timely because they could not ascertain whether these cases were removable until the December 17th and 20th rulings “first introduced the plaintiffs’ federal theory.” Here, the Court says this argument failed because the plaintiffs identified this “federal theory” on November 12th in their opposition to Nassau County’s summary judgment motion.
Nassau County also argued that state Supreme Court Justice Marx’s December 6th summary judgment ruling confirmed that there “was no federal issue in this case at summary judgment.” The Court stated that the defendants only cited the portion of the decision which addressed a separate claim, not the claim used for this removal. Moreover, the Court states that “nothing in Justice Marx’s ruling indicated that Plaintiffs’ … claim was not part of the case” as of November 12th.
As a result, the federal court granted the plaintiffs’ motion to remand because the defendants failed to remove these cases within thirty days of November 12th, the required time period in which to do so.
CENSUS
Register Now for the January 28th American Community Survey (ACS) Conference
Join New York Law School, the Population Reference Bureau, New York City Planning Department and the US Census Bureau (and many local sponsoring organizations) on Tuesday, January 28th for “ACS on the Road” in New York City!
Learn about the ACS- the American Community Survey- a nationwide survey that collects and produces information on social, economic, housing, and demographic characteristics about our nation’s population every year. This information provides an important tool for communities to use to see how they are changing.
This event will connect New York City data users with Census Bureau staff for American Community Survey (ACS) updates, ACS product demonstrations, and real-world use cases from a panel of NYC data users. The event will conclude with breakout sessions over lunch to share feedback on the ACS with Census Bureau staff.
The event will be held in-person at New York Law School (185 West Broadway, Manhattan) from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, but if you can’t make it, we will also be streaming the morning panels. Lunch will be served.
Register here: https://nyls.wufoo.com/forms/qnqo80v1iobqqa/
(Take a look at previously hosted ACS on the Road events in Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah)
Please feel free to share this event invitation to others who may be interested.
INSTITUTE RESOURCES
The New York Elections, Census and Redistricting Institute has archived many resources for the public to view on our Digital Commons Page.
Our Redistricting Resources page contains resources on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. You can access the page
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_resources/
Archived Updates can be accessed
here: https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/redistricting_roundtable_updates/
Please share this weekly update with your colleagues. To be added to the mailing list, please contact Jeffrey.wice@nyls.edu
The N.Y. Elections, Census & Redistricting Institute is supported by grants from the New York Community Trust, New York Census Equity Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the New York City Council. This report was prepared by Jeff Wice & Alexis Marking.