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HERE THE DEFENDANT TOWN DID NOT DEMONSTRATE AS A MATTER OF LAW THAT COMPLIANCE WITH THE NEW YORK VOTING RIGHTS ACT (NYVRA) WOULD FORCE THE TOWN TO VIOLATE THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Lasalle, reversing Supreme Court, determined the defendant town did not demonstrate as a matter of law that compliance with the New York Voting Rights Act (NYVRA) would force the town to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution:

On this appeal we are asked to decide whether the vote dilution provisions of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York (L 2022, ch 226; hereinafter NYVRA), intended to ensure that a numerical minority’s voice is not removed from local government, facially violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (hereinafter the Equal Protection Clause) … . The defendants in this case, the Town of Newburgh and the Town Board of the Town of Newburgh (hereinafter the Town Board), lack the capacity to challenge the constitutionality of the NYVRA except to the extent that it forces them to violate the Equal Protection Clause. Since, on this record, the defendants failed to show as a matter of law that compliance with the NYVRA would force them to violate the Equal Protection Clause, we reverse the order of the Supreme Court. * * *

Here, the defendants contend that any change of its at-large electoral system to comply with the NYVRA would violate the Equal Protection Clause because it would be done with the express purpose of giving citizens statutorily grouped together by race greater electoral success than its at-large system, and that the NYVRA, unlike the FVRA, is not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest. * * *

However, race-based districting is only one of the possible remedies under the NYVRA; the NYVRA also contemplates remedies that do not sort voters based on race, such as such as ranked-choice voting, cumulative voting, limited voting, and the elimination of staggered terms (see Election Law §§ 17-204[3]; 17-206[5][a][ii],[iv] …). Clarke v Town of Newburgh, 2025 NY Slip Op 00518, Second Dept 1-30-25

Practice Point: Consult this decision for an in-depth analysis of whether the New York Voting Rights Act forces a political subdivision the violate the Equal Protection Clause in fashioning a remedy for an alleged violation of the NYVRA.

 

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THE DEFENDANT TOWN DID NOT MEET THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE NEW YORK VOTING RIGHTS... THE JUDGE DID NOT MAKE THE REQUIRED FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW...