Judge tosses lines of New York City’s only Republican House seat

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., talks to reporters following a meeting for President-elect Donald Trump’s picks for the planned Department of Government Efficiency at the Capitol, Dec. 5, 2024, in Washington. Photo: Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP, File

SOUTH BROOKLYN — A judge on Wednesday threw out the boundaries of the only congressional district in New York City represented by a Republican, ordering the state to redraw its borders because its current composition unconstitutionally dilutes the votes of Black and Hispanic residents.

In his ruling Wednesday, Justice Jeffrey Pearlman said the New York district represented by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, which includes all of the borough of Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn — including Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst — should be reconfigured before this year’s midterm elections.

The lawsuit, filed in October by Elias Law Group, an election law firm aligned with the Democratic Party, argued that the lines of the district don’t account for a rise in Staten Island’s Black and Latino population. It pushed for the district to be redrawn to include parts of lower Manhattan, which leans more liberal. Elias filed the lawsuit on behalf of four voters.

“CD-11’s antiquated boundaries instead 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, despite the existence of strongly racially polarized voting and a history of racial discrimination on Staten Island,” the lawsuit stated.

The judge said the petitioners had shown strong evidence of a “racially polarized voting bloc,” as well as “a history of discrimination that impacts current day political participation and representation,” and “that racial appeals are still made in political campaigns today.”

But rather than reshaping the seat himself, Pearlman ordered New York’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw the boundaries of the district by Feb. 6, a fast-approaching deadline.

Republicans are expected to appeal the decision, as a new front opens in a national gerrymandering battle that has both political parties jockeying for advantage in the fight over control of the U.S. House.

“We are reviewing the judge’s decision and our options to protect the voices of the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn,” Malliotakis told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Nothing changes the fact that this is a frivolous attempt by Washington Democrats to steal this congressional seat from the people and we are very confident that we will prevail at the end of the day.”

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis sits with President Donald Trump during a New York Yankees baseball game. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP

Lawmakers in about a third of states have considered redrawing their congressional districts after President Donald Trump pushed Republicans to craft new lines that would help his party hold onto their narrow House majority. Democrats countered with their own redistricting efforts, though they have sometimes been hampered by laws they passed intended to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

The redistricting panel has the primary power to draw congressional maps, and is supposed to do so without gerrymandering the boundaries to give any party a political advantage. But, in the past, that commission has sometimes failed to reach an agreement on the makeup of a district, which has then given the Democrat-controlled state legislature the ability to tweak the lines in their favor.

Republicans had bashed the lawsuit as a clear effort to game the district to help Democrats. Home to around 500,000 people, Staten Island is New York City’s smallest and most suburban borough, better resembling nearby New Jersey towns than the metropolis of Manhattan, just a ferry ride across the harbor.

In a statement after the ruling, Malliotakis said, “This is a frivolous attempt by Washington Democrats to steal this congressional seat from the people and we are very confident that we will prevail at the end of the day.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had vowed to wade into the national redistricting fight but had few legislative avenues to substantially change the state’s congressional lines before the election. New York state is currently represented in the House by 19 Democrats and 7 Republicans.

Hochul said Wednesday’s ruling “underscores the importance” of the state Constitution’s provisions for fair representation.

“New Yorkers in every community deserve these protections,” she said in a statement.

The state’s current map was drawn by Democrats — after a  protracted battle where they rejected a proposal crafted by the bipartisan redistricting commission — and was designed to give their party a boost in a few battleground districts ahead of the 2024 elections. Democrats picked up a few seats in New York under that map, though Republicans eventually won a House majority.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday’s ruling “is the first step toward ensuring communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan. The voters of New York deserve the fairest congressional map possible.”

Republican elected officials and leaders responded to the ruling.

“This was a partisan ruling made by a partisan judge in a case brought by a notoriously partisan attorney,” said New York Republican State Committee Chair Ed Cox. “Kathy Hochul and Albany Democrats did not alter this district when they had a chance in 2024. This entire exercise is a cynical attempt to enact an illegal partisan gerrymander under the guise of a voting rights case. It is shocking that the Governor and Attorney General did not defend the law that the legislature passed, and the Governor signed in 2024 – they are clearly colluding with the plaintiffs in this case.  

“The Staten Island/Brooklyn Congressional District has existed for almost 45 years. Kathy Hochul and Democrats insult the intelligence of NY-11 voters when they engage in such partisan gerrymandering.”

“This redistricting decision is a complete sham,” said Assemblymember Michael Tannousis. “They are trying to fracture our community because they don’t like how we vote. We have a judge who was previously Special Counsel to the Governor directing the show, with an ‘Independent Redistricting Commission’ that previously found the current Congressional lines to be perfectly fine but is now charged with redrawing our congressional district. It’s rigged. It’s transparently partisan, and it’s wrong.”

Malliotakis’ district ruled unconstitutional, ordered redrawn

Lawsuit challenges the boundaries of the only GOP-held congressional district in New York City

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