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opinion
In the upcoming 118th Congress, New Jersey will be represented by nine Democrats and three Republicans. This means that even though New Jersey’s Democratic congressional candidate only got about 54% of her statewide vote in 2022, her 75% of the state’s delegation will be Democrats. To do. This disparity is in many ways due to re-elections, his decadal process of redrawing states’ congressional districts.
This past year’s New Jersey redistricting was widely reported by The New Jersey Globe and made national headlines as it created serious problems that undermined the legitimacy of the current map of Congress. We are writing this letter to highlight some of the legal pitfalls we have observed because the only way to fix them before the reorganization takes place again in 2023 is through constitutional amendment.
In early 2022, New Jersey’s congressional districts for the next decade were determined based on tie-breaking member (and former Supreme Court Justice) John Wallace’s deciding vote. In a constitutionally-mandated public meeting, Wallace gave the following grounds of record for his vote:
“In the end, I decided to vote for the Democratic map, for the simple reason that the last redistricting map was drawn by the Republicans. We conclude that it is necessary for Democrats to have the opportunity to use their maps in this upcoming redistricting cycle.”
In the minds of many, including ours, Wallace’s decision to redistrict New Jersey was reduced to the alternating possession arrows used in college basketball.
Wallace also received assistance at taxpayer’s expense from Samuel Wang of Princeton University’s Princeton Gerrymander Project. The New Jersey Globe said that King and his staff did not act independently, but rather favored the Democratic delegation, including leaking maps secretly provided to Wallace’s staff by the Republican delegation as part of the negotiations. There were widespread reports that action was taken.
The firm served as an advisor to the Republican delegation led by Chairman and current Senator Doug Steinhardt. We have filed the first-ever jurisdictional complaint to the New Jersey Supreme Court challenging the redistricting decision. Unfortunately for the client, the court dismissed the Republican delegation’s lawsuit, allowing the Democratic re-election map to remain in effect for the next decade. In making this decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court made a number of rulings that did not receive much public attention at the time, but which may have implications for future restructuring cycles.
First, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that there was no judicial review of the commission’s decision. The constitution “does not give partisan delegations the right to challenge or refute the decisions of nonpartisan lawmakers. The vote marks the end of the political process.”
Second, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to invalidate the map of Congress, even with allegations that PGP violated confidentiality and contributed to a “tainted” process. . The Supreme Court wrote this argument as follows:[ell] It is outside the Court’s limited review in re-districting matters and therefore cannot be prevailed. ”
Third, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that his wife made campaign contributions to Congressman Bonnie Watson Coleman, one of the 12 incumbents whose congressional districts were redrawn by Wallace’s key vote. therefore dismissed the allegation that Wallace was confronted. In reaching this conclusion, it held that the common law conflict of interest rules did not apply to Restructuring Commission members.
The Supreme Court’s ruling sets a troubling precedent for future redistricting efforts. With regard to lack of judicial review, the Supreme Court’s decision, as we witnessed in 2022, will allow the Supreme Court to hear such challenges even if the tiebreaker makes a seemingly arbitrary and capricious decision. It means lacking jurisdiction. The logical conclusion is that if the tiebreaker flipped a coin publicly (which, though arbitrary, was fairer than Wallace’s alternate ownership reasoning), there was nothing a court could do about it. No. The same is true for parliamentary maps that may have been adopted under a “polluted” process in which information was leaked to other delegations by the support staff of independent legislators. Many other states have laws or constitutional provisions that give courts jurisdiction to override re-election decisions that suffer from such flaws, and New Jersey benefits from the same.
The court also ruled that there is no common law conflict of interest limitation applicable to the tiebreaker. While it is permissible for a tiebreaker to be chosen between the finalists of both delegations, the Supreme Court’s ruling is that, again logically, the opposing person, like the spouse of an incumbent member of parliament. is a tiebreaker, meaning that important votes can be made. A parliamentary map with no legal issues. New Jersey would benefit from better safeguards to provide confidence that the tiebreaker’s “independent members” are in fact independent.
We believe that the New Jersey Supreme Court’s essential ruling that this cycle’s flawed redistricting process and lack of jurisdiction to remedy its flaws demonstrates the need for redistricting. I’m here. In its opin- He even said that a change might be desirable.
Congress has the ability to reform the redistricting process of the New Jersey legislature by proposing to the public constitutional amendments that would reform the current partisan committee system. We hope that the legislative branch will begin discussions and take meaningful steps to reform the restructuring process before the next decade arrives.
Given the impact of re-elections, including the sheer partisan advantage that can be given to one political party, it is imperative that the public have faith in the process that takes place every decade. That didn’t happen in 2022, but it could happen next time if Congress and the people of New Jersey take the necessary steps.
Matthew C. Moench and Michael L. Collins are partners at King, Moench & Collins LLP. The firm served as general counsel to the Republican delegation to the New Jersey District Reorganization Commission.
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