NEW YORK - A federal appeals court on Tuesday reaffirmed a judge’s order earlier this month that New York State reinstate its June 23 Democratic presidential primary.

The contest now is set to be held as originally planned, alongside several congressional and state legislative primaries.

State Board of Elections co-chair Douglas Kellner said he and his fellow Democratic elections commissioner Andrew Spano will not make another appeal. He said they wish to “focus all of our attention on the daunting tasks of managing the primary election in a way that minimizes the risks to the public and to election workers.”

Judges with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday agreed with U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres that the board’s cancellation late last month of the contest was unconstitutional.

The ruling is a product of a lawsuit filed against the state Board of Elections by Andrew Yang, his delegate candidates and Bernie Sanders’ delegate candidates. 

Representatives for Yang and Sanders had argued that though the former Democratic presidential candidates had suspended their bids for the nomination, the cancellation of the primary deprived their supporters and other New York voters of their First Amendment rights. They said expanded absentee voting and other measures would help to protect public health while protecting democracy.

They sought to have delegates elected to represent their policies and priorities at the Democratic National Committee convention in August.

The state Board of Elections had said the cancelation would reduce the COVID-19 risk to voters and elections workers and noted that all candidates but Joe Biden had dropped out of the race.