New York
With New York District Lines On Hold, Judge Blesses Possible Backup Plan
![With New York District Lines On Hold, Judge Blesses Possible Backup Plan With New York District Lines On Hold, Judge Blesses Possible Backup Plan](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/08ny-redistrict-facebookJumbo.jpg)
A New York appeals court docket choose on Friday signed off on the appointment of a impartial skilled to organize new congressional district traces that may very well be used if the state’s highest court docket upholds a lower-court ruling that struck down maps drawn by Democratic lawmakers.
The choose, Justice Stephen Okay. Lindley of the Fourth Appellate Division, emphasised in his choice that the substitute maps would solely be a backup measure meant to protect a variety of potential treatments because the courts think about a broader authorized problem to the maps introduced by Republicans.
However Justice Lindley’s directive raised the specter that an more and more tangled struggle over New York’s freshly drawn congressional districts might but veer away from Democrats months after they enacted a map that favors their candidates in 22 of 26 districts, and require the state to delay this yr’s main contests from June till August.
The political stakes are excessive: With the 2 events locked in a nationwide battle for management of the Home, the swing of only a few seats in New York might theoretically be the distinction between a Democratic or Republican majority in Washington subsequent yr.
To date, just one trial court docket choose — a Republican from rural Steuben County — has weighed in on the case. The choose, Patrick F. McAllister, struck down the entire state’s legislative districts final week as a violation of a 2014 state constitutional modification that outlawed partisan gerrymandering. He ordered lawmakers to redraw the traces with bipartisan help or hand the method over to a particular grasp.
What to Know About Redistricting
Democrats appealed the choice they usually consider they’ll prevail at both the Appellate Division or on the New York Court docket of Appeals, the state’s highest court docket. They argue that the maps’ partisan tilt displays the make-up of a closely Democratic state like New York, not an try and skew the traces for partisan benefit.
Justice Lindley supplied for that chance, too. Whilst he gave Justice McAllister approval to nominate a particular grasp to create “standby” maps, Justice Lindley opted to maintain in place a keep on many of the lower-court ruling, successfully permitting the election to proceed below the present district maps for now.
“The keep will, amongst different issues, enable candidates for Congress, State Senate and Meeting to file designating petitions by the statutory deadline, and permit the boards of elections to simply accept such petitions,” he wrote.
If the courts finally discover that the maps violate the State Structure, the primaries would proceed as deliberate in June. If the maps are struck down, the courts must resolve whether or not to delay the primaries and order substitute maps, or enable this yr’s contests to go ahead as scheduled utilizing the Democratic traces and wait till the subsequent election cycle — or schedule particular elections — to repair them.
A closing choice is predicted across the finish of April.
Permitting a particular grasp to start engaged on backup traces now could improve the probabilities that the courts might lock in place substitute maps earlier than this yr’s elections in the event that they rule in opposition to Democrats. The Legislature would virtually definitely be given a chance by the court docket to appropriate them first.
What’s redistricting? It’s the redrawing of the boundaries of congressional and state legislative districts. It occurs each 10 years, after the census, to replicate adjustments in inhabitants.
How U.S. Redistricting Works
Michael Li, senior counsel for the Democracy Program on the Brennan Middle for Justice, referred to as Justice Lindley’s order a “logical step.”
“Too typically, map drawing will get put utterly on maintain after which by the point a case is determined, there isn’t sufficient time to redraw maps,” Mr. Li mentioned. “However that doesn’t imply the state of affairs isn’t messy for lawmakers and much more so for individuals operating for workplace.”
A court-appointed particular grasp drew New York’s congressional traces in 2012 over the last redistricting cycle. In that case, a federal court docket took over the method as a result of the State Senate and Meeting — which had been then managed by Republicans and Democrats, respectively — merely couldn’t agree sufficient to approve any Home district traces.
Democratic attorneys had argued at a listening to on Thursday in opposition to appointing a particular grasp this yr earlier than a closing choice is reached. Legal professionals for the plaintiffs, New York voters supported by nationwide Republican teams, took the alternative place.
On Friday, each events appeared proud of Decide Lindley’s choice. Mike Murphy, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, didn’t say whether or not lawmakers would think about drafting new maps earlier than a closing ruling, as Justice Lindley had urged them to do.
“We’re happy the keep is sustained, permitting the election to maneuver ahead, and we look ahead to being heard on the attraction within the subsequent couple of weeks,” he mentioned in a press release.
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New York
Trump Tries to Move Hush-Money Case to Federal Court Before Sentencing
![Trump Tries to Move Hush-Money Case to Federal Court Before Sentencing Trump Tries to Move Hush-Money Case to Federal Court Before Sentencing](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/29/multimedia/29trump-sdny-tzwh/29trump-sdny-tzwh-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg)
Former President Donald J. Trump sought to move his Manhattan criminal case into federal court on Thursday, filing the unusual request three months after he was convicted in state court.
The long-shot bid marks Mr. Trump’s latest effort to stave off his sentencing in state court in his hush-money trial, in which he was convicted of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal.
He is scheduled to receive his punishment on Sept. 18, just seven weeks before Election Day, when he will square off against Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, wrote in the filing.
Their filing came even as the Trump legal team is awaiting the result of a separate effort to postpone the sentencing; it opened a second front that could complicate the first.
On Aug. 15, Mr. Trump asked the state court judge who presided over the trial, Juan M. Merchan, to delay the sentencing until after Election Day. Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that they needed more time to challenge his conviction on the basis of a recent Supreme Court ruling granting presidents broad immunity for official acts.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which won the conviction of Mr. Trump on May 30, has argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling has “no bearing” on their case, which centers on Mr. Trump’s cover- up of a sex scandal involving a porn star. But the Manhattan prosecutors deferred to the judge on whether to delay the sentencing, leaving the door open for Justice Merchan to punt until after the election.
Justice Merchan was expected to rule on the delay request next week, and it is unclear whether Mr. Trump’s federal petition would disrupt that. In the federal filing, the former president’s lawyers asked a judge to find that Justice Merchan was barred by law from sentencing Mr. Trump while their attempt to move the case was underway.
It seemed possible that effort might backfire. If the federal judge does not grant the lawyers’ request, they will have further alienated Justice Merchan as he prepares to sentence their client. Mr. Trump faces up to four years in prison, though he could receive a shorter sentence, or merely probation.
There are signs the federal judge might be skeptical. Mr. Trump already tried — and failed — to move the case to federal court. Last year, soon after the former president was indicted, he asked the same federal judge to remove the case from Justice Merchan, arguing that it concerned official acts as president.
The judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein, rejected that argument.
“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely personal item of the president — a cover-up of an embarrassing event,” Judge Hellerstein wrote in an opinion last year. “Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts. It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties.”
It is unclear how soon Judge Hellerstein might take up Thursday’s request, or whether he will hold a hearing to entertain it. In their filing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers cast aspersions on the New York State court system, saying its procedures had “proven inadequate” to protect federal interests and, if allowed to continue, would “result in further irreparable harm to President Trump.”
The unorthodox filing suggested that Mr. Trump’s lawyers are likely to make any and every attempt they can to delay the sentencing, even if Judge Hellerstein balks.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The filing on Thursday captured two of Mr. Trump’s favorite legal strategies: delay, and attacks on Justice Merchan.
The former president has on three occasions sought to oust Justice Merchan from the case, claiming he is biased, and lobbing personal attacks at the judge’s daughter, who is a Democratic political consultant. The judge has rejected each request and assailed the claims as “rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims.”
New York
Video: Heavy Downpour Floods New York City Streets
![Video: Heavy Downpour Floods New York City Streets Video: Heavy Downpour Floods New York City Streets](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/08/07/multimedia/07hurricane-debby-nycrains1-bwmh/07hurricane-debby-nycrains1-bwmh-facebookJumbo.jpg?video-overlay)
new video loaded: Heavy Downpour Floods New York City Streets
transcript
transcript
Heavy Downpour Floods New York City Streets
Drivers navigated flooded roads, including major highways, as a storm hit the New York City region.
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Announcement: Bainbridge Avenue Jerome Avenue.
Recent episodes in Extreme Weather
New York
Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter
![Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter Senator Menendez’s Resignation Letter](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/23/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo/doc-4ddf28bf-7055-4adb-bc76-b-promo-facebookJumbo.png)
ROBERT MENENDEZ
NEW JERSEY
COMMITTEES:
BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN
AFFAIRS
FINANCE
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Honorable Phil Murphy
Governor of New Jersey
Office of the Governor
Trenton, N.J. 08625
Dear Governor Murphy,
United States Senate
WASHINGTON, DC 20510-3005
July 23, 2024
528 SENATE HART OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC 20510
(202) 224-4744
210 HUDSON STREET
HARBORSIDE 3, SUITE #1000
JERSEY CITY, NJ 07311
(973) 645-3030
208 WHITE HORSE PIKE
SUITE 18-19
BARRINGTON, NJ 08007
(856) 757-5353
This is to advise you that I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from
New Jersey, effective on the close of business on August 20, 2024.
This will give time for my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer constituent files that
are pending, allow for an orderly process to choose an interim replacement, and for me to close
out my Senate affairs.
While I fully intend to appeal the jury’s verdict, all the way and including to the Supreme Court,
I do not want the Senate to be involved in a lengthy process that will detract from its important
work. Furthermore, I cannot preserve my rights upon a successful appeal, because factual matters
before the ethics committee are not privileged. This is evidenced by the Committee’s Staff
Director and Chief Counsel being called to testify at my trial.
I am proud of the many accomplishments I’ve had on behalf of New Jersey, such as leading the
federal effort for Superstorm Sandy recovery, preserving and funding Gateway and leading the
federal efforts to help save our hospitals, State and municipalities, as well as New Jersey families
through a once in a century COVID pandemic. These successes led you, Governor, to call me the
“Indispensable Senator.”
I thank the citizens of New Jersey for the extraordinary privilege of representing them in the
United States Senate.
Sincerely,
Pabet Menang.
Robert Menendez
United States Senator
New Jersey
cc: The Honorable Kamala Harris, President of the Senate
The Honorable Ann Berry, Secretary of the Senate
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