Shirley Huntley (Photo: Wikimedia)

The names of all of the lawmakers secretly recorded by disgraced ex-State Sen. Shirley Huntley will be unsealed tomorrow, a federal judge has ruled.

The decision came following a petition by members of the press eager to find out who Ms. Huntley had recorded while wearing a wire last year. Documents filed in federal court last week ahead of Ms. Huntley's sentencing, revealed that, in an effort to reduce her sentence on embezzlement charges, she had agreed to wear a wire to tape conversations with fellow lawmakers.

According to court documents, between June and August 2012, Ms. Huntley recorded meetings with nine different people, including seven elected officials and ex-staffers. Recordings with an individual identified as "Sate Senator #1" and two other elected officials "did yield evidence useful to law enforcement authorities," the papers said. Senator #1 is believed to be State Sen. John Sampson, who was arrested Monday on unrelated charges.

In a colorful ruling, Judge Jack Weinstein, said that lawmakers who dealt with Ms. Huntley should not be surprised to see their names in print.

"It is well known that widespread investigations of New York State legislators and related officials are being conducted by the government," he wrote in his decision, which was first reported by Capitol Confidential. "Every legislator who has conversed with this defendant will necessarily assume that he or she was recorded under the supervision of the FBI."

He also argued lawmakers should be prepared to face scrutiny. “To paraphrase President Harry Truman, 'those who cannot stand the heat should stay out of the kitchen,'" he wrote.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which had tried to block the release, said it is considering filing an appeal.

"We are assessing our options," he said.

(Photo: Getty)

Earlier today, the state Supreme Court blocked New York City's controversial attempt to ban large cups for sugary drinks in restaurants and other food establishments. The ruling, which you can view below, blasted the ban as "arbitrary and capricious," ultimately creating "an administrative Leviathan." The rules were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow.

"It is arbitrary and capricious because it applies to some but not all food establishments in the City, it excludes other beverages that have significantly higher concentrations of sugar sweeteners and/or calories on suspect grounds and the loopholes inherent in the Rule, including but not limited to no limitations on re-fills, defeat and/or serve to gut the purpose of the Rule," Judge Milton Tingling ruled.

Fundamentally, Judge Tingling concluded that the city's Board of Health lacked the authority to implement the regulations.

"The Portion Cap Rule, if upheld, would create an administrative Leviathan and violate the separation of powers doctrine," he argued. “The Rule would not only violate the separation of powers doctrine, it would eviscerate it. Such an evisceration has the potential to be more troubling than sugar sweetened beverages."

The city has vowed to appeal the ruling and Mayor Michael Bloomberg already scheduled a City Hall press conference on the topic later today, so the drama is still far from over.

"We plan to appeal the sugary drinks decision as soon as possible, and we are confident the measure will ultimately be upheld," the mayor's office wrote on Twitter. "We believe [the Board] has the legal authority and responsibility to tackle causes of the obesity epidemic, which kills 5,000 NYers a year."

View the ruling below, via Capital Tonight.

(Photo: Neighborhoodr New York)

Opponents of New York's 2011 gay marriage law had sought to overturn the legislation under grounds that it violated New York's Open Meetings Law, arguing the closed-door meetings held by New York State Senate Republicans with Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg constituted an illegal violation. But the State Supreme Court stymied their hopes today and ruled in favor of New York State and gay marriage supporters.

"Accordingly, we conclude that the judgment should be reversed insofar as appealed from, and judgment should be entered in favor of defendants declaring that defendant New York State Senate did notviolate the OML in enacting the [Marriage Equality Act] and that marriages performed thereunder are not invalid," Acting Justice Robert Wiggins declared.

The State argued that a meeting with Senate Republicans was not subject to the Open Meeting Law, and that the legislation itself was passed during an open session of the State Senate. Although a lower court initially allowed the lawsuit to proceed, Mr. Wiggins felt the claims did not merit overturning the entire legislation.

He wrote, “Even assuming, arguendo, that the Bloomberg and Cuomo meetingsviolated the OML, we would not invalidate the MEA and the marriages performed thereunder."

Governor Cuomo, unsurprisingly, was buoyed by the good news, issuing a statement announcing, “The court’s decision affirms that in our state, there is marriage equality for all, and with this decision New York continues to stand as a progressive leader for the nation."

View the ruling below:

Lew Fidler and David Storobin

More ballots were opened for the March 20th State Senate special election this afternoon, and Republican candidate David Storobin doubled his margin ... to two votes, multiple tipsters told The Politicker.

The latest gain comes from absentee and provisional ballots where the respective campaigns withdrew their objections. 41 ballots were counted in total, with 21 going to Mr. Storobin and 20 going to his Democratic opponent, Lew Fidler.

However, the bulk of the contested absentee and provisional ballots still needs to be tallied.

A judge is expected to begin the process of reviewing the Special Referees' recommendations tomorrow, although that may not involve actual votes being counted. Much could additionally hinge on a lawsuit Mr. Fidler has filed against more than a hundred votes gathered by a Storobin campaign staffer.

Lew Fidler and David Storobin

At the end of last week, lawyers representing the two candidates in the special election to replace Carl Kruger in the State Senate agreed to a court proceeding to resolve which candidate ultimately received more votes. Republican candidate David Storobin is currently leading by a single vote, but Democrat Lew Fidler is feeling confident.

The judge has appointed two "Special Referees" to hear ballot objections made by both sides on the contested absentee votes (i.e. one campaign may believe signature similarity on certain ballots indicates the votes were fraudulent).

On April 4th, the judge will review the Special Referees' findings.

This could either close the book on the election by officially placing one of the candidates above the 110 vote threshold needed to avoid a full hand recount, or set the stage for such a recount where campaigns and the courts review all 20,000 ballots cast in this election.

View the campaigns' legal agreement below:

Correction: The original post incorrectly said the process would begin April 4th instead of being reviewed on that date.

After a rally in front of the federal courthouse urging the courts to modify their proposal, The Politicker asked if he would be willing to shift his campaign to the Congressional District he would live in under the court's map, setting up a primary with Rep. Yvette Clarke instead of Mr. Towns.

"Well, again, that's hypothetical," he responded. "My plan is to move forward under the 10th congressional lines as they currently exist, or as they're proposed."

He has been steadily gathering endorsements and campaigning against Mr. Towns, so any change of campaign plans in reaction to redistricting, whether that would mean seeking reelection in the State Assembly or running for another office, would have a major impact in the Brooklyn political scene.

During the rally, Mr. Jeffries made the case for why Mr. Towns' district, based in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy and East New York, should remain connected to Mr. Jeffries' base in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene.

"You have traditionally African-American communities in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill that are part of the same community of interest as Bedford–Stuyvesant," he proclaimed before ticking off a laundry list of similarities between the two neighborhoods and the former district they used to be attached to.

"They share the same commercial corridor among Fulton Street and Myrtle Avenue. They share the same means of mass transportation along the A train, C train, and G line. They share a similar school district ... Community Boards 2 and 3 often work closely together."

This all contrasts poorly, Mr. Jeffries said, with the Italian-American neighborhood of Howard Beach in Queens that Mr. Towns' district would pick up under the court's plan.

"I'm no demographer, but I don't think Howard Beach has anything in common with Bedford–Stuyvesant," he said.

"We celebrate and embrace the diversity here in Brooklyn, but we just want to make sure that communities of interest are not cracked, splintered, [or] torn asunder inappropriately," Mr. Jeffries later added.

Watch Mr. Jeffries rally against the new congressional lines below:

Earlier this afternoon, Brooklyn elected officials and activists gathered to protest the court's draft redistricting map for Congressional lines, and Councilman Charles Barron, as usual, was the most outspoken member of the crowd.

Mr. Barron, who's running for Congress himself, made it clear his first issue was the term "Special Master" used to describe the court's redistricting expert assisting int he drafting.

"I think the first thing we got to do is stop calling the judge 'Master,'" he declared. "Trying to draw us back on the plantation. So I'm going to say 'judge,' because we have no master."

"It is obvious that these drawing are racist," he continued, before analyzing the demographics in districts across the state.

"In the white districts: 96.5% white, 86.3% white, 70% white, 84% white. In 13 of these districts, the white majority population in those districts goes from 70% to 96%, to protect those districts, to make sure that those whites stay in office," he said.

This all contrasts, Mr. Barron contended, with the district he lives in, where the black percentage of the population declined relative to the white population.

Although it was inevitable these majority-black districts would be diluted somewhat in redistricting -- the African-American population of Brooklyn decreased, after all -- Mr. Barron saw it as a deliberate attempt to weaken the black community's voice.

"Every one of our few Congressional Districts are now in trouble if there's a coalition of other communities that come together that want to disempower blacks and Latinos," he concluded.

"This is an attack on Martin Luther King, on Rosa Parks, on Fannie Lou Hamer. Of all of those who came before us. And we say, 'No, we cannot allow this to happen.'"

Watch Mr. Barron make his remarks below:

U.S. Magistrate Roanne Mann has given a deadline at 9 a.m. tomorrow for any parties to submit comments. She then has until Monday to submit her plan to a three-judge panel. That panel will then hold a hearing for the parties on March 15th and subsequently order a plan into effect.

David Nir, an attorney who now heads the left-leaning Daily Kos Elections blog that closely monitors redistricting developments across the country, said he expected the three-judge panel would adopt the proposed map wholesale.

"In all likelihood, I'd expect the three-judge panel to adopt the magistrate's final map with few if any changes," he told The Politicker. "Given the amount of work the magistrate has put into drafting these maps, and her close familiarity with the new lines, I'd be surprised if the three-judge panel chose to second-guess her."

The main obstacle that could divert this plan from being enacted is the Legislature suddenly coming together to pass their own map before the court's process is finished, possibly with a signature on the plan from Governor Andrew Cuomo that effects their alternative redistricting plan into law.

However, a redistricting expert mused to The Politicker that there might not be enough panic in New York State's Congressional delegation to push Albany to overcome their differences.

"It appears that more members of the delegation either can live with this plan, or are not at the point of demanding change through a deal with Albany," he said.

Indeed, a couple Representatives in Long Island have seen their districts upended, but they generally all have landing zones. Only GOP Congressman Bob Turner, who is half-way into his first term, is left with no winnable district to run for reelection in whatsoever. The only other district eliminated by the court's map belongs to a retiring Democrat, Congressman Maurice Hinchey. Thus the pain is divided equally between the two parties, further mitigating the need for emergency legislative action.

The leader of the Democrats in the State Assembly, Speaker Shelly Silver, didn't even seem too upset with the plan, calling the plan a "template" for their own processes. However, he did indicate his interest in getting a plan passed before the courts finish their intervention, something that could still very well happen, although with a rapidly diminishing window of time.

Regardless of where the lines settle, it seems inevitable they'll settle soon. At the Congressional level at least, the intense electoral chaos may finally be at an end on March 15th.

The court's map for parts of New York City.

The special master involved in redrawing New York's Congressional districts released the court's draft map this morning, and certainly not every incumbent is going to be pleased. And, unlike the proposals from the State Assembly and Senate majorities, this draft will likely contain far more legal weight as the process moves forward over the next week.

At first glance, the map appears to eliminate Congressman Bob Turner's Queens-based seat and Upstate Congressman Maurice Hinchey's one as well. The map additionally eliminates a Nassau County district, dismantling Rep. Gary Ackerman's the most.

A new plurality-Asian district is created in Queens, which Mr. Ackerman may choose to run for. However, Congressman Joe Crowley, whose district was converted into a 48% Latino seat with more of the Bronx, might also prefer to run for that new seat as well, should the map hold.

Notably, veteran Congressman Charlie Rangel's district shifts out of Manhattan and into The Bronx to become not only become majority-Latino, but also more heavily African-American. In what could throw a wrinkle in his competitive primary, Congressman Ed Towns' Brooklyn district pulls out of northern Brooklyn to absorb Russian and Irish neighborhoods from Mr. Turner's old district.

Capitol Confidential has a good breakdown of how the maps affect the Capitol Region and Capital Tonight has some analysis of how they affect the rest of Upstate New York.

Albany may still be able to put the brakes on this court-drawn map if they can pass their own proposal through the State Assembly and State Senate and get it signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, but they're rapidly running out of time.

View the maps for yourself below, or click here for a more detailed look. Click here to view the demographics breakdown.

The group proposed a new district in southern Brooklyn.

Last week, the judge in the redistricting case took submissions from the public on where New York's new congressional lines should lie, and one group, "the Orthodox Alliance for Liberty," submitted a plan aiming to unite as many Jewish communities as possible, especially Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, and upstate.

In order to justify their proposal, the group argued the lines proposed by the legislative majorities, as well as the existing congressional boundaries, are wholly unacceptable.

"The current districting of the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in the New York City and Long Island area, as well as the maps proposed by the New York State Senate and Assembly majorities are untenable," they wrote to the court. "The sizable, distinct and ethnic and racial group of Orthodox Jews has been systematically deprived of just representation in the U.S. Congress. This Orthodox Alliance for Liberty implores the Honorable Court to correct an egregious wrong and restore a full voice for New York’s Orthodox Jews in the U.S. Congress."

The organization provided an example of this cartographic wrongdoing.

"Nowhere in the United States has a single neighborhood been broken into more than three Congressional districts, outside of 'Flatbush," they stated. "Flatbush, in fact, has been divided into no less than five congressional districts. Borough Park, as well, an undeniable strong concentration of Chassidic, Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers, has also been gerrymandered into political irrelevance."

Notably, the group proposed a new district in southern Brooklyn containing the Orthodox and Russian Jewish neighborhoods previously held by Representatives Bob Turner and Jerry Nadler. Combined with traditionally Republican Irish and Italian areas, the district would undoubtedly be one of the most ideologically conservative seats in New York State.

(Mr. Turner's house in Breezy Point is connected to Staten Island in the proposal.)

Other parts of the group's proposed map seek to connect the Hasidic communities in Crown Heights and Williamsburg, as well as in the Orthodox Jewish communities in the Far Rockaways and parts of Nassau County.

Read the group's full pitch, including for why these areas deserve to be classified as a community of interest, below: