The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday that a lawsuit brought by Republicans challenging the state’s congressional map can proceed, holding that the state constitution permits litigants to raise claims of impermissible partisan gerrymandering. The justices directed a lower court judge to assess the map, which was crafted by Democratic lawmakers, according to a three-part test laid out by Justice Elena Kagan in her dissent to a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision that decreed that partisan gerrymandering challenges cannot be brought in federal court.
That test is fairly deferential, with the court stating that “a reasonable degree of partisan gerrymandering” is “permissible” but warning that it cannot be “egregious in intent and effect.” That will present a central question for the lower court as it scrutinizes New Mexico’s map, which Democrats redrew in 2021 so that the rural 2nd District in the southern part of the state would take in a portion of the Albuquerque area. As a result, the 2nd was transformed from a solidly Republican seat into a light-blue swing district, a key reason why Democrat Gabe Vasquez was able to oust freshman GOP Rep. Yvette Herrell last year.
But that race was extremely close, with Vasquez prevailing by less than a percentage point, 50.3 to 49.6. The competitive nature of the district could therefore make it difficult for plaintiffs to prove, as Kagan instructs, that Democratic lawmakers’ “predominant purpose” was to “entrench” their party in power and that the new lines “substantially” dilute Republican votes. Herrell in fact kicked off a bid for a rematch earlier this year, suggesting she does not believe Vasquez is “entrenched” in his seat.
Yet even if plaintiffs can make such a demonstration, Democrats would still have the opportunity to show that they had “a legitimate, non-partisan justification” for their choices. The map’s sponsor, state Sen. Joseph Cervantes, has argued just that, saying his goal was to ensure all three of the state’s congressional districts would include both cities and rural turf.
“For 20 years I’ve worked to erase the chosen boundaries, which historically assigned southern NM to the Republicans in exchange for the north assigned to Democrats,” he tweeted the day his proposal was signed into law. “This plan rejects that past thinking, mixes urban and rural areas, and will bring us together as a state.”
