The New Jersey Supreme Court has handed a major win to Ward F Councilman Frank Gilmore and a coalition of 18 Jersey City organizations in their effort to undo a controversial ward map enacted in 2022, agreeing to hear their appeal from an intermediate appellate court decision earlier this year.The map, adopted by the the Jersey City Ward Commission despite an outpouring of public opposition, removed from Ward F a large portion of the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood, all of Liberty State Park, and several high-profile developments and placed them in Ward A, which is represented by Councilwoman Denise Ridley, a close ally of Mayor Steven Fulop.According to the plaintiffs, the new Ward F map was designed to strip Gilmore of power over several high-profile developments and to retaliate against him for defeating a member of Fulop’s slate in the 2021 election.In a three page decision released today, the court wrote “the petition for certification is granted, limited to the issues concerning the interpretation of the ‘compactness’ requirement of the Municipal Ward Law; the challenge under the Equal Protection Clause of the New Jersey Constitution; and the dismissal of the claim brought under the Civil Rights Act.”Among their legal claims, challengers to the map argued that it violated the requirement that in drawing legislative maps, officials prioritize “compactness.” At a hearing before Hudson County Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Turula in 2022, they offered evidence that the new Ward F scored fifty percent less compact than its previous configuration, adding that it was “almost identical to the Massachusetts district from which the term Gerrymander got its name two hundred years ago.”In a 2022 hearing, plaintiffs offered a comparison of the Jersey City ward maps over three redistricting cycles. The lower right map was offered by plaintiffs as an alternative to the one drawn by the Jersey City Ward Commission (upper right) which the contended would have been more compact and kept “communities of interest” together.Judge Turula ultimately sided with the commission, dismissing each of the plaintiffs’ claims, finding, among other deficiencies, that the plaintiffs had failed to file the case in a timely manner.In March, an appellate court granted plaintiffs a partial victory, rejecting the late filing claim and sending the case back to Turula to further examine plaintiffs’ claim on compactness. In a letter to Terula today, plaintiffs’ attorney William Matsikoudis asked that Turula proceed with a hearing on compactness to “provide a factual record for the Supreme Court to consider when rendering its decision.”Gilmore and the coalition of community groups are represented by Renee Steinhagen ofNew Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, Yael Bromberg of Bromberg Law, and William Matsikoudis of Matsikoudis and Fanciullo. The Jersey City Ward Commission is represented by Murphy Orlando LLC.The post New Jersey Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Jersey City Gerrymandering Case appeared first on Jersey City Times.