The Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that will keep New York City’s lone Republican-held congressional district in place for this year’s midterm elections.
The court sided with GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who had asked the justices to block a ruling from a state judge this year that her Staten Island-based 11th District was unconstitutional. The judge said the district diluted Black and Latin voting power and ordered New York’s independent redistricting commission to redraw it.
Republicans had also appealed the decision in the New York state court system. But Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the Supreme Court had to act now because “there is an unacceptably strong possibility that the applicants’ appeal in the state court system will not conclude until it is too late for us to review the ultimate decision.”
The candidate filing deadline in New York is April 6.
The Supreme Court’s ruling comes amid an active mid-decade redistricting battle taking place across the country as both parties vie for control of the narrowly divided House this fall. Democrats who had initially filed the lawsuit over the district lines in New York had hoped a redraw would pave the way for them to pick up a seat.