A bid by former Senate President Steve Sweeney to regain his seat on the legislative redistricting commission heads to court next week, with a judge announcing an accelerated schedule to rule on a lawsuit filed today.
But Mercer County Assignment Judge Robert Lougy did not order any temporary restraints that would allow the New Jersey Apportionment Commission to continue their work while Sweeney challenges the legality of his removal from the panel yesterday by Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr
Lougy said that the accelerated schedule “obviates the need” for a temporary restraining order.
Jones replaced Sweeney with Laura Matos, the Pinelands Commission chair and now the only Latina on the panel that is redrawing the state’s 40 legislative districts.
Lougy ordered the defendants in the Sweeney lawsuit – acting Secretary of State Tahesha Way, the apportionment commission, Jones and Matos – to file their responses to the Court by 5:30 PM on Sunday. Oral arguments are scheduled for 3 PM on February 1, one month before the legal deadline to complete the new legislative map.
Sweeney is asking the court to vacate Jones removal of Sweeney and Way’s certification of Matos as his replacement.
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