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New Jersey Star-Ledger
Court orders redrawing of election
map
January 22, 2003
In a surprise ruling that could throw this year's campaigns for
Senate and
Assembly into turmoil, an appeals court yesterday invalidated
the state's
legislative districts and ordered them redrawn to comply with
the state
constitution.
Unless the ruling is overturned on appeal, the commission that
drew the
districts in 2001 would have to meet again and fix them --
before April 7,
when legislative candidates must file to run in the June 3
primaries.
Republicans originally objected to the district
boundaries on civil-rights grounds, arguing that they unfairly
diluted minority votes in the Newark area. Those claims were turned
aside by state and federal courts in 2001. But yesterday, a
three-judge state appeals court ruled in the GOP's favor on a
narrower issue, saying that carving Newark and Jersey City into
three legislative districts each violated plain language in the
state constitution.
Republicans yesterday celebrated what they consider a
long-overdue vindication of their arguments against the map.
Calling the ruling "a victory for the rule of law and
the voting public," Senate Co-President John Bennett (R-Monmouth)
said: "It is imperative that these flawed districts are corrected so
that New Jersey may move into this year's election with a new,
constitutional map."
But Democratic lawyers promised to appeal the ruling
to the state Supreme Court, and sounded confident that they would
prevail.
"If I were a Republican, I'd keep my dancing shoes in
the closet," said Senate Co-President Richard Codey (D-Essex).
Following the 2000 Census, a bipartisan commission was
appointed to redraw the districts to make them roughly equal in
population. The Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a map,
and an independent 11th member named to break the deadlock chose the
Democrat-crafted plan.
Republicans sued to block the plan, but lost in both
state and federal court, and the Legislature ran the 2001 election
in the new districts. Helped by the new map, Democrats won back the
Assembly for the first time in 10 years and pulled into a 20-20 tie
in the Senate.
But for the past year-and-a-half, another lawsuit --
this one filed by Assemblymen Paul DiGaetano and Kevin O'Toole, both
of Essex County, and several voters -- quietly moved through the
state courts.
In this lawsuit, the Republicans pointed to a
provision in the New Jersey Constitution dating from 1966 that
prohibits map-drawers from splitting up the state's two biggest
cities, Newark and Jersey City, into more than two districts. They
are now split into three districts each.
Yesterday, Judges James Petrella, Jack Lintner and
Lorraine Parker of the Appellate Division of Superior Court ruled
that the GOP lawmakers were right.
Of the constitutional language at issue, the court wrote that
"nothing could
be clearer or more basic."
The idea that heavily minority Newark and Jersey City
should go into two districts runs counter to the concept that drove
Democrats who drew the new map. In a process they called
"unpacking," Democrats sought to spread black and Hispanic voters
into a number of districts. They would still represent a large chunk
of the voters in each district, but no one minority group would make
up the majority of the electorate in those districts as in the
past.
The Democrats argued that this strategy would help
elect more black and Hispanic legislators. Republicans said it would
dilute the minority vote.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of
Appeals endorsed the "unpacking," ruling unanimously in May 2001
that the map did not violate minority voters' rights.
But last April, another federal court in Georgia threw
out a map drawn up by Democrats there that reduced the percentage of
blacks in several districts.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of that
ruling from the Georgia Democrats.
While the language of New Jersey's constitution is
clear, Democrats argued that federal laws invalidated it. Democratic
lawyer Leon Sokol said it would be impossible to protect the
minority vote as the federal Voting Rights Act requires if the state
follows its own constitution.
Yesterday's state appeals court ruling "would
effectively force you to pack those minorities into a smaller number
of districts," Sokol said.
Codey said that would disenfranchise minorities:
"Their votes would not matter as much," he said.
The 2001 election added four new minority members to
the Legislature.
Newark and Jersey City have been divided into three or
even four districts in almost every decade since the redistricting
rules in the state constitution were approved in 1966. In some of
those years, a Republican plan was chosen.
"If the Republicans are arguing this is wrong, why did
they do it? How hypocritical is that?" Codey said.
While the ruling involves only two cities, the effect
would be sweeping if it stands: "Once you change one district, you
change all the districts and it become a domino effect," Sokol
said. |
