The federal Court of Appeals approved yesterday a motion from the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg for an expedited hearing on its complaint that a recent redistricting of State Assembly and Senate districts discriminated unconstitutionally against the Brooklyn area’s 45,000 Hesidic Jews.
The hearing, which is scheduled to begin Friday, is on an appeal from a lower court ruling on July 26 upholding the constitutionality of the redistricting. The UJO, representing more than 100 Williamsburg Jewish organizations, most of them Hasidic, charged that the new districts, approved by the State Legislature on May 29, discriminated against Jewish residents in favor of Blacks and Puerto Ricans.
The request for the expedited hearing was made because of the nearness of the September primary elections. Nathan Lewin of Washington, a vice-president of the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), who is representing the UJO in both the original suit and in the appeal, said the Hasidic voters of Williamsburg would suffer “irreparable harm” if the primary was held within the framework of the new districts.
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