U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, raising constitutional issues with proposed New York congressional maps approved Thursday by the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission, said they “should be meticulously scrutinized” by the state Legislature who still has to approve them.

A spokesperson for Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives who represents New York's 8th Congressional District, in Brooklyn, said there is reason to be concerned with the “failure of the IRC to address many of the flaws” in the current map drawn by a special master after the state Legislature’s maps were rejected by the state’s top court in 2022.

“Instead of remedying several of the substantive issues raised by good government groups related to communities of interest, the IRC map ignores or exacerbates them in parts of New York State, including the upper Hudson Valley,” Jeffries spokesperson Andy Eichar said in a statement Friday.

“The IRC map breaks apart six additional counties in New York State, including one that appears gratuitously designed to impermissibly benefit an incumbent in the 19th Congressional District,” Eichar continued. “That would be a clear violation of the New York State Constitution. Now that the Independent Redistricting Commission has completed its work, it is important that the legislature ensure — as the Constitution contemplates — that the people of New York State be afforded a fairly drawn congressional map.”

Jeffries is referring to various state and federal constitutional and statutory requirements the IRC must take into account, by law, when drawing the maps, including “competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties” and “the maintenance of cores of existing districts,” including counties.

The maps the IRC released Thursday would make substantial changes to some upstate House district boundaries while leaving most of the current lines in other parts of the state largely in place. While many of the changes are minimal, there will still be a number of competitive races that may decide who controls the House in 2025. As minority leader, Jeffries would benefit from a more Democratic friendly map if the party wins control of the chamber, since he would likely be the next speaker of the House.

Should the Legislature reject the new congressional boundaries, it would draw new lines themselves.

Democratic state Sen. James Skoufis, from the Hudson Valley, has already said he would oppose the new maps. Democratic Sen. Liz Krueger, of Manhattan, told Capital Tonight on Friday she hasn’t really looked at the maps completely, but knows they’re very similar to current ones and said she “can certainly see an argument for the Legislature rejecting these.”