The US Supreme Court on Monday approved an emergency appeal from a Republican congresswoman in New York who asked the justices to block a state court ruling that ordered her Staten Island-based district to be redrawn ahead of the midterm election.
The high court’s three liberal justices dissented from the decision.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and state GOP election officials had urged the Supreme Court to allow New York’s current map to be used, an outcome that would have benefited Republicans in the midterm amid a flurry of mid-decade redistricting in other parts of the country.
Malliotakis argued that the state court decision requiring her district to be redrawn had “thrown New York’s elections into chaos” and said the new district would amount to a racial gerrymander.
The case deals with a different legal dispute than the one at issue in President Donald Trump’s effort to eke an advantage out of the maps by redrawing the congressional district lines in Texas and other states. However, Democrats would likely benefit from the redrawing of Malliotakis’ district in a midterm in which that party is angling to recapture control of the House.