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With the Court of Appeals set to hear arguments Tuesday on whether to toss Democrats’ blatantly gerrymandered voting districts, New York’s future as a democratic, two-party state stands at grave risk.

Should the top court’s judges (almost all Dems, and all but one chosen by Democratic ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo) fail to throw out the Dems’ maps, they’ll be signaling that the voters’ express demand, written into the state Constitution, for nonpartisan redistricting means nothing.

Say hello to a one-party state, beholden to no one. Pretty much . . . forever.

Do the jurists want to be remembered for putting the interests of the Democratic Party over the will of New York voters? Or will they toss the Dems’ maps and order new ones, as did trial-court Judge Patrick McAllister?

On the merits, the decision couldn’t be clearer: In 2014, voters approved a constitutional amendment that plainly dictates the redistricting process and explicitly bans boundaries “drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties.” It was a clarion call to end gerrymandering in New York, once and for all.

Yet Dem lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul flagrantly disregarded both the process and the ban on partisan districts. Their maps would trim New York’s GOP seats in Congress from eight to four, with Democrats getting 22. Republicans would get just 15 of 63 state Senate seats.


  Judge Patrick McAllister previously ruled the new maps to be unconstitutional. Vaughn Golden/WSKG via AP, Pool Judge Patrick McAllister previously ruled the new maps to be unconstitutional. Vaughn Golden/WSKG via AP, Pool

McAllister blasted the Dems for that after expert testimony showed how districts were intentionally drawn to stamp out competition. And, as plaintiffs note, the Court of Appeals “is confined solely to the legal issues raised by the parties” and “has no authority to second-guess” the lower court’s factual finding.

If the court overrules McAllister and fails to toss both the congressional and the Senate maps, you can be sure it did so solely for political reasons — voters be damned.

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