Redraw these lines: Assembly lines should fall and the primary should move later in the summer

Monday, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Larry Love gave lawyer Jim Walden an hour to make his case that the maps now in place for the Assembly violate the state Constitution, as decided by the state’s highest court. Love should take less than 60 minutes to render his decision. The answer is yes. The maps, drawn using a process that flagrantly ignored the law of the land ratified by voters, are invalid and must be redrawn, and the June 28 primary pushed later into the summer.

But regardless of whether Love agrees or not, and even if he should side with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the judge still has a duty to move with dispatch to get his written ruling out right quick — today if possible. Heastie and his allies are stalling, claiming, as his lawyer argued in court yesterday, that there’s no time for a remedy, so let’s just keep the rotten map.

Double bologna on rye. As the Court of Appeals ruled, the Constitution must override all other considerations.

Heastie’s lawyer says that the handful of GOP assemblymen voting for his map makes it bipartisan. But the Constitution not only bars partisan gerrymandering; it prohibits maps designed to favor or disavor incumbents. As Walden told the judge, Huge Ma — the enterprising developer of Turbovax, who helped countless people get shots to protect themselves from COVID — had big plans to challenge an incumbent and run for Assembly. Then Heastie drew him out of the district.

We repeat: Does the Constitution matter or not?