A state judge Wednesday ruled New York State’s current congressional map unconstitutional because it discriminates against Blacks and Hispanics in Staten Island and Brooklyn and ordered it redrawn in a matter of weeks.
The ruling is a huge win for Democrats – if it holds up on appeal.
It could allow a Democratic-dominated State Legislature reconfigure the state’s 26 congressional districts ahead of this fall’s mid-term elections and give the party a better chance to seize a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It also comes as several Republican-led states, urged on by Republican President Donald Trump, have acted to redraw their congressional maps for partisan advantage.
In New York, State Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman ruled the 11th Congressional District in Staten Island and Brooklyn dilutes minority votes and deprives minority residents of representation.
“Petitioners have also shown through testimony and empirical data that the history of discrimination against minority voters in CD-11 still impacts those communities,” Pearlman wrote, referring to the Democratic plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit in November.
Pearlman said it is “clear to the court that the current district lines of CD-11 are a contributing factor in the lack of representation for minority voters.”
The district’s current officeholder, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), is the lone Republican in the New York City delegation.
Republicans are expected to appeal to New York’s highest court and, then, to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. Party leader Ed Cox blasted the decision and Pearlman, who worked as a lawyer for New York Democrats in several capacities before becoming a judge.
“This is a partisan ruling made by a partisan judge brought by a notoriously partisan attorney,” Cox said.
He referred to the Elias Law Group, the Washington-based firm that has represented Democrats in redistricting and other election-law matters around the country.
Democratic State Chairman Jay Jacobs hailed the ruling.
“I think it’s a good decision that will improve representation,” Jacobs told Newsday. “I am hopeful it will be upheld.”
Normally, every state redraws its maps following the once-a-decade census, with new maps in place for years such as 2022, 2012 and 2002.
But Trump has overturned that by pushing Republican-led states to redraw their maps as fast as possible to help the GOP in the 2026 mid-term elections.
Soon after the Republican states moved forward, four residents of the 11th District filed suit in New York. They claimed Staten Island’s black and Latino population has risen from 11% to 30% since 1980 while its white population has fallen from 85% to 56% and the state’s lines “confine Staten Island’s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections for their representative of choice.”
