Page 4 - AHATA

Papillon: the butterfly
Friday effect of magnificent food
April 29, 2022
T: 582-7800
www.arubatoday.com
facebook.com/arubatoday
instagram.com/arubatoday
Page 8
Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper
A r u b a ’ s O N L Y E n g l i s h n e w s p a p e r
Democrats face worsening legal environment on redistricting

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Associated Press
After New York state's top
court this week crushed
Democratic hopes of com-
ing out ahead in this dec-
ade's redistricting cycle,
the party faces an increas-
ingly precarious legal envi-
ronment in the hyper-par-
tisan battle over drawing
legislative lines.
New York's Court of Ap-
peals on Wednesday over-
turned a map that Demo-
crats muscled through the
state legislature there, de-
ciding that a nonpartisan
expert will instead draw the
lines for the state's 26 con-
gressional districts. It was at
least the fifth time this cycle
a state court has ruled that
maps drawn by its state
legislature were too par-
tisan, with a Democratic
map in Maryland also fall-
ing and Republican-drawn
ones in Kansas, North Caro-
lina and Ohio being tossed
out as well. The Manhattan skyline is seen from the observatory of the Empire State Building in New York City on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022.
Still, Republicans are fa- Associated Press
vored to win state Supreme
Court races in North Caro- In contrast, the 4-3 New into the state's constitution. shya Jain, a lecturer at the ing for redistricting reform
lina and Ohio in Novem- York decision came from "Democratic judges are University of California-Ber- and anti-gerrymandering
ber that'd enable those a court appointed entirely not really as inclined to keley who writes on redis- legislation," Jain noted, and
GOP-controlled legislatures by Democrats, a party that excuse extreme partisan tricting at the website Split that seeps into their judges'
to implement more par- now finds itself bound to a gerrymandering as Repub- Ticket. "Democrats for a preferences.
tisan maps before 2024. bipartisan process written lican ones are," said Lak- long time have been push- Continued on next page