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A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a trial court’s ruling that at-large school board elections in a New York state school district violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because they dilute the voting power of Black and Latino residents.
The decision comes in a case involving the East Ramapo Central School District, which has some 8,800 students and covers large Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish populations that send about 29,000 students to private religious schools.
At the heart of the case are findings that two local rabbis and other leaders in the Orthodox community have long recruited and slated candidates for election to the nine-member East Ramapo school board and that the board often served the interests of the private school community. Although some minority candidates have been slated by the Orthodox leaders and elected, they were not the preferred candidates of minority voters in the district, court papers say.
13 days short of inauguration, the Republican Jewish Coalition congratulates Joe Biden jta.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jta.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
AP photo
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for the legalization and regulation of marijuana for recreational use by adults, his third attempt in as many years to get the drug fully legalized in the state.
Cuomo, a Democrat, announced his proposal Wednesday as part of his upcoming State of the State agenda for the year.
Cuomo pointed to growing acceptance of legalization in the Northeast, including in Massachusetts, Maine and most recently, New Jersey.
The proposal calls for the creation of a new Office of Cannabis Management that would oversee recreational use as well as existing medical use.
Court: Private schools favoured over public schools near NYC
by Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
Posted Jan 6, 2021 6:42 pm EDT
Last Updated Jan 6, 2021 at 6:44 pm EDT
NEW YORK Public schools in a highly segregated community near New York City were being overseen for years by a school board elected in violation of a law protecting fair voting rights, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday.
The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan came in a decade-old dispute over schools in East Ramapo, a community 25 miles (40 kilometres) north of New York City in Rockland County.
About 98% of the 29,000 students attending private yeshivas there are white, while 92% of the 8,800 public school students are Black or Hispanic, the court noted.