{"id":125700,"date":"2026-02-06T22:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125700\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T22:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:36:29","slug":"staten-island-congressional-remapping-wont-make-court-ordered-deadline-could-come-down-to-26-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/125700\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Island congressional remapping won\u2019t make court-ordered deadline, could come down to \u201826 wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 In a pivotal election year, Staten Islanders will have to wait to learn the layout of their congressional district after a court-ordered deadline passed Friday.<\/p>\n

Justice Jeffrey Pearlman ordered a redrawing of New York\u2019s 11th Congressional District in January<\/a> with a Friday deadline, but shortly after that order, appeals filed by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis<\/a>, the current Republican representative for the district, stayed that deadline.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Wice \u2014 a professor at New York Law School and director of its New York Elections, Census and Redistricting Institute \u2014 said final maps could take weeks as the case makes its way through the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cRedistricting decisions often come down to the wire at the last minute, and despite the administrative headaches new maps enacted at the end of a process can go into effect and be used almost right away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, but it happens all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wice said the layout of the Staten Island congressional district, which it currently shares with part of South Brooklyn, might come down to a court-appointed \u201cspecial master\u201d like it did in 2022.<\/p>\n

That year a drawn-out redistricting process saw New York\u2019s congressional primaries postponed to August<\/a> after a special master published district maps in May. <\/p>\n

States redraw their congressional district lines after each decennial U.S. Census. <\/p>\n

Typically, those processes give political parties in control of a state government \u2014 in New York\u2019s case, Democrats \u2014 an opportunity to redraw advantageous lines and take more control over the federal government.<\/p>\n

However, New York voters approved an Independent Redistricting Commission in 2014 that was meant to remove politics from the redistricting process.<\/p>\n

The State Legislature retained an approval requirement for the maps, so if the Independent Redistricting Commission doesn\u2019t draw maps to New York Democrats\u2019 liking, those maps won\u2019t be approved.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened in 2022, leading to the appointment of the special master, and in 2024 the State Legislature drew updated maps, leaving what the special master drew largely in place, particularly in the 11th Congressional District. Gov. Kathy Hochul approved those 2024 maps.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s primary is set for June, but could face a postponement similar to 2022 if the court cases drag out.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for Malliotakis have filed appeals in New York\u2019s appellate division and Court of Appeals, the state\u2019s highest court. Malliotakis, who won her first congressional race in 2020, has been highly critical of Pearlman\u2019s decision, particularly for his past work for Democrats, including Hochul. <\/p>\n

\u201cKathy Hochul\u2019s handpicked judge has made a mockery of the judicial process and thrown the upcoming elections into chaos,\u201d Malliotakis said. \u201cHis highly-partisan ruling unquestionably violates the U.S. Constitution and is so fundamentally flawed that it was denounced by the law school professors he cited in his decision. I\u2019m confident that it will ultimately be reversed on appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearlman based his ruling, in part, on submissions from a pair of Harvard Law professors who now dispute the way their testimony was used in the decision.<\/p>\n

In his decision, Pearlman sided with plaintiffs in the case, represented by the Washington, D.C.-based Elias Law Group, who sought a redrawing of the district because they argue its current layout illegally limits the voting rights of Black and Latino voters. <\/p>\n

While the judge didn\u2019t order a specific layout of the redrawn district, plaintiffs in the case included a possible map that would see the shared portion of the district, which covers all of Staten Island, moved into lower Manhattan neighborhoods like the West Village and Battery Park.<\/p>\n

While voters in both district-mate options \u2014 lower Manhattan and South Brooklyn \u2014 went for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last presidential election, those in lower Manhattan did so more overwhelmingly, according to an analysis from The City news outlet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That advantage could help Democrats take the only Republican-held congressional district in the five boroughs, which Malliotakis first won in 2020 when she defeated former Democratic Rep. Max Rose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 In a pivotal election year, Staten Islanders will have to wait to learn the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-125700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}