SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral argument on Monday in a legal challenge to a congressional map that divides the state’s politically conservative neighborhoods.
this is One of the legal battles fought in states from Kentucky to Utah Concerning the United States Congressional districts and unconstitutional allegations established by state legislatures.
Republicans and several other plaintiffs allege that Democrats in New Mexico divided the southeastern corner of the state — an oil-producing region and a Republican stronghold — into three districts “for raw political gain.” condemned.
The case affects the second congressional district where Democrat Gabe Vasquez ousted incumbent US Representative Yvette Herrell in November. The majority Hispanic neighborhood now extends from the US border with Mexico to the desert oil fields and parts of Albuquerque.
Clovis-based District Judge Fred Van Soren in April paved the way for Republicans to challenge the new map of Congress while banning immediate changes that could disrupt the 2022 midterm elections.
Democratic Gov. Michelle LeJean Grisham and leading Democratic lawmakers have called on the Supreme Court to step in and keep the re-election plan alive.
They believe that the new boundaries of the state’s three congressional districts should be properly vetted through the political process to ensure more competitive districts that reflect demographic changes while respecting Native American communities. It is said that it was done.
But lawmakers also argued that political considerations cannot be separated from the process of drawing congressional districts, and cautioned courts against digging into the “political thicket.”
In a related case in the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, the judge considered: A challenge to leave state legislatures virtually unchecked In making rules for congressional and presidential elections. The discussion was submitted in December.
The North Carolina Republicans who brought the case to the High Court argued that a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Election Clause allows state legislators to effectively control “when, where and how” legislative elections, including redistricting. claims to have complete control over That would mean excluding state courts from the proceedings, they say. State courts have been the only courts to challenge the partisan congressional map since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that these cases cannot be brought to federal court.
The stakes are high in that case, as Republicans won just a tiny majority in the November 2022 election, giving them enough power to challenge President Joe Biden’s agenda. A ruling that causes some redistricting may affect the 2024 election.
In New Mexico, Democrats won all three congressional elections in November. They control all elected offices statewide, command the majority in the state legislature and the Senate, and make up the five-member Supreme Court.
“Under the previous congressional map, communities of interest in southeastern New Mexico had a real opportunity to elect Republican representatives,” Republicans said in a written court brief.