BREAKING: Trump loses BOMBSHELL court case

This is Democracy Watch, Mark. We've got. big news here as the result of your law. firm that signals some bad news for. Donald Trump. Can you explain what just. happened in court? Oh, this is really. bad news for Donald Trump because he. wants to rig the 2026 election by. forcing Republican states to draw. uh illegal uh gerrymanders and we just. sued the state of New York and we won. And there were a lot of people who said. that there was no place for Democrats to. go to gain seats, that there were no. opportunities I I in court and my law.

firm brought this case against state of. New York because they had enacted a map. uh that violated the state constitution. uh and against all the naysayers and. doubters uh we came out uh the winner uh. and this is a good thing for the. citizens of New York uh and it was a. good thing for Democrats. So, what. happens now as far as the map is. concerned and will it be impact and will. it impact the 2026 election? Oh, it's. going to definitely impact the 2026. election. You know, New York has a uh.

bipartisan redistricting uh commission. and so the court has sent it uh to them. uh to redraw uh and uh has given them a. deadline uh very early February. So, you. know, we're going to you and I are going. to be back in probably a few you know, a. few weeks talking about whether they. have met that met that deadline and. produced a map, whether they have not or. uh where we go. Now, the Republicans. have said they're going to appeal this. uh but you know, these are the folks who.

uh you know, have over and over again in. the state of New York uh claimed that. they were going to beat my law firm in. court and uh I don't think they have won. any. Okay, so talk about what what the. practical impact of this ruling is going. to be. What is What is the the. congressional district as it stands. right now and how do you expect the. court or the independent redistricting. commission to remedy it? Yeah, so the. district at at play here is a district. that covers Staten Island and parts of.

Brooklyn and the claim was that under. the New York State Voting Rights Act uh. it uh it it does not uh uh give minority. voters uh the ability to elect that they. are entitled to. So, the court agreed. with that uh and it will require a. redraw that uh you know, in the. illustrative map, in other words, the. map that my law firm presented at trial, which doesn't mean that's necessarily. will be the final remedy map, but uh you. know, would would change the. configuration uh and uh add a part of.

lower Manhattan. uh and that would both uh remedy the. harm to minority voters, which is what. the case is about. It would also um as. the media has widely reported uh mean. that you would almost certainly see an. additional Democratic seat created uh. and uh so that that's that's what that's. the direct impact. Now, there's always. the question of whether or not the the. redistricting commission or the court, if the redistricting commission doesn't.

come to a conclusion, you know, whether. they look at other parts of the map, in. other words, whether they open up more. than just that district, but that is the. that is the direct uh effect of this of. this claim. This is a good opportunity. right here uh for anybody who's not yet. subscribed to to Democracy Docket, which. is the news outlet Mark founded to focus. on everything voting and elections. A. great way to support his invaluable work. as he does the work of democracy in the. courts where it matters most, a small. step that we can all take to show some. support for his work is to subscribe to. Democracy Docket. So, I'm going to put. that link right here on the screen and.

also in the post description of this. video. Again, it's not if not only for. the invaluable work that Mark is doing. in the media space and I follow. Democracy Docket on a daily basis, then. at least to support his work uh in the. courts where obviously he's having a. huge impact and it's not just in New. York. There's also 60 cases across the. country, more than 60 cases across the. country, 80 cases across the country uh. fighting back against uh these these. Republican efforts to to you know, rig. democracy in their favor. Uh so again, that link is right here on the screen.

and also in the post description of this. video. Mark, talk about the likelihood of the. Republicans succeeding in an appeal. Look, you never count your chickens. before they hatch and you know, there. can be anything can happen on appeal and. we take every case as it comes before. every court um but I will say that you. know, as you go higher up the court. system in the state of New York you you. have court you have just judges and. justices that were uh appointed by you.

know, Democratic uh governors uh and uh. have you know, pretty pretty sensible. views on voting rights uh law uh and and. and and really supportive of Voting. Rights Act laws and uh so you know, I. feel pretty good about this chance this. case as it goes up on appeal, but you. know, Brian, I want to double back to. what you were saying about um. about uh about Democracy Docket and I. had the and I had and your channel as. well. You know, the New York Times in.

reporting on this victory and I want to. put this up on the screen if I can said. that New York's case, which was filed by. Elias Law Group, a Washington-based firm. that has handled much of the Democratic. Party's redistricting litigation, has. been seen by many as having little. chance of prevailing. Now, I mean, set aside the question of. you know, who says we had little Who are the many. who said we had little chance of. prevailing? It's It's It's It's giving. It's giving Donald Trump's, many people. are saying. Yeah, it's it's it's a.

Donald Trump, many people are saying. That's exactly right. And Brian, if. people go back and they look uh at. episodes that you and I did when this. lawsuit was filed. we talked about the likelihood that we. would prevail. If people subscribe to your your YouTube. channel, they would have already known. that. You know, and and it's one of the. reasons why we have to support. independent media because if you are a. Democracy Docket reader the fact that my. law firm won this case would not be a. huge surprise and you would not be left.

with this many people are saying. And. and and again, Brian, I want to give you. all the credit in the world here because. you identified this case when we filed. it and said, Mark, we need to do a video. on this because this is important. I. mean, if Democrats are able to gain a. seat in in New York, like that has an. offsetting effect against other things. And then as we walked through it um we. talked about the merits and the. likelihood that we would actually. prevail. So,

I you know, in some sense I am flattered. to hear the New York Times, you know, say, well, you know, they must be such. good lawyers that they prevailed when. many people said they were going to. lose, but I think it's actually um a. credit to you and to your channel that. it is not a surprise to Brian Tyler. Cohen uh uh subscribers. So, please. subscribe to this channel and hit the. bell to make sure you are alerted when. we do post the next video uh that people. need to pay attention to. Well, I. appreciate that and I'll put the link. right here on the screen and of course. in the post description of this video. Mark, do you have any concern that the.

rest of the the Democratic states across. the country, notwithstanding where we've. been successful thanks to firms like. yours in New York or thanks to um. decisions uh like the one in in Utah, but has enough been done across the. country to counteract what Republicans. are doing to undermine democracy in. states like Texas, like Florida, like. North Carolina and Ohio and Missouri? Um no. Uh look, as you know, I called.

immediately for when they announced. Texas for every Democratic state to. redistrict their their lines and to. redistrict 30 Republicans nationwide out. of their districts. I thought if we had. if we had proceeded with that, it would. have actually headed Republicans off. because they would not have wanted that. kind of escalation. That isn't what. happened and so now we are in this back. and forth. Yeah. And it is incumbent on. all Democratic states to do whatever. they can and I am hopeful I am hoping. that the recent victory that my law firm. had in California, also a video that you.

and I did uh. to defeat the Republican efforts to. overturn that and now this in New York, you know, these are two really. high-profile states, two very different. postures, one where we're defending a. map, one where we were challenging a map. um uh you know, but they should. hopefully give comfort to some of the. Democratic elected officials in these. states who think, "Geez, if we do this, may we run a foul of the law? Might we. might we wind up in court you know, in a.

tough dog fight?" And I'm here to say, like, you know, if you're going to be in. tough dog fight, we're going to be there. with you and we're in there in. California. Um we obviously challenged. the map in in New York. We will. challenge the map uh in uh in Florida. when he draws one. We are also, by the. way, in court in Virginia to supporting. what Virginia Democrats are doing, right? Republicans are trying to stop. that process, which will yield. additional Democratic seats. So, you. know, my message to uh Democrats who are.

elected officials is number one, these. are not normal times and we need to do. everything we can do to preserve. democracy and that means you know, matching what Republicans are doing and. exceeding it so that Democrats can. retake the House. But the second is, don't don't overthink or over worry the. courts. You know, like it doesn't mean. that we're going to win every case, but. you will have allies in court. You will. have lawyers who are going to fight like. like hell to to try to protect um uh. what you do if you are doing the right.

thing and to challenge what Republicans. are doing when they do the wrong thing. Yeah. Well, I want to talk about one. Democrat in particular to that point. Um. so, I just spoke with uh Governor Moore. in Maryland and he put together what's. called the GRAC, the Governor's. Redistricting Advisory Commission, and. the GRAC came up with an 8-0 map that. was that was just introduced this week. Um that now goes to the legislature so. that they can vote on it and and. basically ratify that so that it can go. out to the voters of Maryland. But whether or not it even comes to the.

floor is going to be up to. is going to be up to Bill Ferguson who. is the state Senate president. Bill. Ferguson has come out and and expressed. opposition to actually bringing this. thing up. And so he's really what stands. in between an eight to nothing map. versus a seven to one map that we have. right now. Obviously significant on the. backdrop of what we're seeing. Republicans do across the country. And. so what would your message be to any. members of the Maryland State Senate in. light of the fact that they have the. opportunity to counteract what.

Republicans are doing right now and yet. it's still up in the air as to whether. we're going to see that process move. forward. Yeah, look I my message to the. folks in Maryland is to sort of learn. from what we saw in California. Yeah. You know, in many respects I give the. governor. Wes Moore enormous credit here because. he created a process, a structure, this. commission uh to take a look at what a. fair map might be. And they came out. with a new map. And so you know, to the.

extent you had legislators in in. Maryland who were concerned that you. know, the process by which a new map. might be drawn could leave the map. vulnerable. I think what Governor Moore has done is. really important both politically and. legally. In the same way by the way that. what Gavin Newsom did in California was. was really important. You know, bringing. it you know, I was not as you recall in. California originally. enamored by the idea of a ballot.

initiative. It struck me that there were. other ways that that that could be done. But what Gavin Newsom I think understood. was that there was a legitimacy and a. distinction to be drawn politically. between what he was doing in Maryland. versus what for example Governor Abbott. has done. And I think you're seeing that. the Democrats are doing the same thing. in Virginia where it will go to a ballot. initiative. Now Maryland, you know, that. isn't the process that Governor Moore. has used there. But I think he is. basically replicating the idea of look,

let's set aside let's let's reset a. baseline here of how we go about this. And he did that by creating this. commission. And so my message to. legislators is to you know, like believe. in that process. You know, believe in. what Governor Moore has done. And and. and and adopt and adopt the map that the. commission came up with. So I'm going to give two calls to action. for folks who are watching this right. now. The first is if you use social. media, if you want to make a phone call,

if you want to send an email, reach out. to Bill Ferguson in Maryland or any. other state Senate members, state. senators in Maryland and let them know. that that you feel strongly about making. sure that they push push this process. forward and don't block any effort to. actually let the people of Maryland vote. on an eight to nothing map. So again, if. you use social media, tweet at him, post. at him, whatever it may be. Otherwise. call or email. You can just Google Bill. Ferguson and find all of his information. that way. The second call to action is. if you are not yet subscribed to.

Democracy Docket and you want to support. the invaluable work that Mark is doing. both in the media space but also very. importantly in the front lines where it. actually matters, where it's making a. huge impact as we've seen in New York, a. small step we can all take to do that is. to subscribe to Democracy Docket. So I'm. going to put that link right here on the. screen and also in the post description. of this video. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen. I'm Mark Elias. This is Democracy Watch. >> [music].