By Jeff Wice & Alexis Marking
This week- Nassau County Seeks to Move Redistricting Case to Federal Court; Nassau Attorney Claims State Judge Wants Cases Settled; Middle East-North African State Demographics Bill Becomes Law; N.Y. Automatic Voter Registration Start Delayed: Register Now for January 28th Census Conference
N.Y. REDISTRICTING & VOTING RIGHTS LIGITATION
Nassau County Legislature: Coads et al. v. Nassau County & NY Communities for Change (NYCC) v. Nassau County
On December 23rd, Nassau County submitted paperwork to remove the challenges to the county’s legislative map from state court to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York County argues that a federa. The county argues that a question exists allowing for federal jurisdiction: whether the plaintiffs can satisfy the standards of Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA). Section 2 of the VRA contains multiple “exacting requirements” and safeguards that a plaintiff must satisfy to prove vote dilution, which Nassau County argues that the plaintiffs have failed to satisfy. The filing includes 807 pages of relevant material.
On December 26th, the Coads and NYCC plaintiffs filed a memorandum of law (“memo”) in support of their joint motion “by order to show cause for immediate remand” to keep the cases before the state court. The memo included five arguments.
First, the notice of removal is untimely.
Second, this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to hear this case.
Third, Nassau County failed to obtain the consent of all properly joined and necessary defendants for these actions. Fourth, this motion warrants expedited treatment and immediate remand to the lower court so that trial may resume promptly.
Lastly, the plaintiffs are entitled to attorneys’ fees.
On December 26th, attorneys for counsel for the Coads plaintiffs filed a “declaration” in support of the plaintiffs’ joint motion to show cause for immediate remand. On December 26th, counsel for the plaintiffs also submitted a proposed order to show cause.
In response, on December 29th, the county’s attorneys submitted a memorandum of law to the federal court arguing that there were substantial questions of federal voting rights law involved in the case and objected to sending the case back to the state court.
The federal judge assigned to the case is Judge Joan Azrack (New York Law School 1979).
Also of interest on December 29th, one of the county’s outside attorneys, Mary “Molly” DiRago, filed a declaration with the federal court stating that state Supreme Court Justice Marx, who is hearing the state cases, called her to the bench after last week’s case hearing concluded and suggested to her, in private, that he wanted to “get the case settled” and he asked “what the hell are those guys doing?” She stated that “those guys” referred to her county clients. She also stated her that “” it was “pretty clear what went on,” and that he was going to “blow the lid off this thing” if we did not settle. I took this to be referencing his belief that my clients intentionally gerrymandered the legislative map at issue in the State Court actions.””
State to Collect Demographic Data on Middle Eastern & North African New Yorkers
On December 20th, Governor Kathy Hochul today legislation (Chapter 657/S.6584C) that will require separate count categories for White, Middle Eastern, and North African groups in New York State. The legislation was sponsored by Senator Mike Gianaris in the Senate and by Assemblywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas.
The new law would require every state agency, board, department, or commission that collects demographic data as the ancestry or ethnic origin of residents, to use separate collection categories for the “White” group in New York State. The collection categories and tabulations include the following North African and Middle Eastern Groups,
1. Major North African (NA) groups: Egyptian, Moroccan, Sudanese, Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan; and
2. Major Middle Eastern (ME) groups: Yemeni, Iranian, Palestinian, Iraqi, Lebanese, Israeli, Jordanian, Syrian, Armenian, and Saudi; and
3. Other Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) groups
N.Y. Automatic Voter Registration Starts in Late 2025
In the Albany Times Union, Emilie Munson reported that the state Board of Elections’ launch for automatic voter registration will be ready in the second quarter of 2025 – more than two years after the implementation date for the law. You can read the article here: https://bit.ly/4gW8T8Q
AROUND THE NATION
New York Joins State Attorneys General In Amicus Brief Supporting Louisiana’s Congressional Redistricting Map
On Friday, an amicus brief was filed in Louisiana v. Callais for a coalition of twenty attorneys general. The brief supported Louisiana and a group of Louisiana voters who are seeking to uphold a 2022 congressional map that features two majority-Black districts.
This case centers on Louisiana’s response to a federal district court’s ruling in 2022, which stated that Louisiana was likely violating Section 2 of the VRA by only having one majority-Black district. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court and was sent back to the lower court, where the court ruled that Louisiana was required to redraw the map by January 2024 or otherwise go to trial. The state believed that a trial would result in the court imposing its own map, so the Louisiana Legislature went into a special session and drew a new map that included a second majority-Black district.
However, after the map was signed into law, a group of “non-African Americans” (as they identified themselves), sued Louisiana and alleged that the new map was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A three-judge panel in the Western Louisiana District Court ruled in favor and blocked the new map from being used. Louisiana appealed and received an emergency stay from the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2024 to block the lower court’s injunction.
This case has now returned to the U.S. Supreme Court. The question is whether the three-judge court erred in enjoining Louisiana’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Supreme Court precedent provides states with “breathing room” to redraw voting districts with racial communities in mind when there is a “good reason” for the state to believe they must do so to comply with the VRA’s voting protections.
In this case, Louisiana argues that it was trapped between contrary court orders due to the three-judge court, which undermined its ability to create a compliant map. Similarly, the amicus brief argues that the court failed to provide Louisiana with meaningful breathing room to comply with the VRA. States must receive flexibility to remedy VRA violations and this ruling threatens states’ primary role in redistricting. The brief also argued that Alabama Amici’s request to “jettison” the Court’s ruling of Section 2 and Gingles should be rejected, as the decision is not presented for review in this proceeding and the Court has had a settled interpretation of both for decades.
In addition to New York’s Attorney General, the amicus brief included the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
UPCOMING EVENTS
New York “American Community Survey” Census Conference
January 28, 2025- Census” “ACS On the Road” – Join New York Law School, New York Counts, the Population Reference Bureau, New York City Planning Department, and the U.S. Census Bureau to learn how different data users in New York City use American Community Survey (ACS) data. We will conclude with small breakout sessions where you will have the opportunity to interact with Census Bureau staff and share what you need to better use ACS data in your own work. The event will be held at New York Law School, 185 West Broadway, Manhattan from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Registration is required. You can register here: https://nyls.wufoo.com/forms/qnqo80v1iobqqa/
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.