{"id":19423,"date":"2025-10-28T02:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19423\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T02:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:59:22","slug":"lawsuit-argues-new-yorks-gop-held-11th-congressional-district-should-be-redrawn-dilutes-black-latino-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19423\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit argues New York\u2019s GOP-held 11th Congressional District should be redrawn –‘dilutes Black, Latino voting’"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2019s congressional map<\/a> unconstitutionally \u201cdilutes Black and Latino voting strength\u201d in the Empire State\u2019s Republican-held 11th District and should be redrawn, according to a lawsuit filed by Democratic super lawyer Marc Elias\u2019 firm on Monday.<\/p>\n

The district includes all of Staten Island and southern parts of Brooklyn and is represented by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY)<\/a>, who slammed the lawsuit as a \u201cfrivolous\u201d attempt to \u201cupend\u201d New York\u2019s congressional boundaries.<\/p>\n

Representative Nicole Malliotakis decried the lawsuit as \u201cfrivolous.\u201d Michael McWeeney<\/p>\n

The case, filed by the Elias Law Group<\/a> on behalf of four voters, comes as heated redistricting battles<\/a> have played out in several<\/a> states<\/a> in recent months as both parties attempt to gain a partisan edge ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack and Latino Staten Islanders have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to elect a representative of their choice and influence elections in New York\u2019s 11th Congressional District \u2026 in violation of the prohibition against racial vote dilution in Article III, Section 4(c)(1) of the New York Constitution,\u201d the lawsuit<\/a> argues.<\/p>\n

The district includes all of Staten Island and southern parts of Brooklyn, all repped by Malliotakis in Congress. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Elias\u2019 firm contends that New York\u2019s current congressional map<\/a>, implemented in February 2024, \u201cstill perpetuates a fatal substantive defect: it dilutes Black and Latino voting strength\u201d in District 11.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges the district was drawn without taking into account a rise in Staten Island\u2019s black and Latino population and drop in the borough\u2019s white population.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 1980 to 2020, the combined Black and Latino population on the Island climbed from approximately 11% to nearly 30%,\u201d the lawsuit stated. \u201cDuring the same period, the Island\u2019s white population dropped from 85% to 56%, meaning racial minorities have been a significant driver of Staten Island\u2019s population growth in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the current configuration of CD-11 does not account for these demographic changes or modern communities of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group of protestors marches in Brooklyn, New York, with some carrying a black coffin prop and signs protesting cuts to federal healthcare programs. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

To fix the alleged problem, the lawyers for the plaintiffs call for reconfiguring the 11th District to include parts of lower Manhattan, which leans more Democratic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we go again\u2026\u201d Malliotakis, the only GOP representative of New York City in Congress, wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cAnother frivolous lawsuit trying to upend our congressional district in an attempt to tilt the scale to give Democrats an advantage in next year\u2019s election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The congresswoman, who is the daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Greece, pointed to her own heritage as an example of the \u201cnew low\u201d Democrats are stooping to to gain an advantage in the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo claim our independently drawn map somehow disenfranchised Hispanics and other minorities when I\u2019m the first Hispanic & minority member elected to represent this district is a new low!\u201d Malliotakis argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe defeated them twice before and we\u2019ll do it again,\u201d she vowed.<\/p>\n

New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox called the lawsuit<\/a> \u201ca naked attempt to disenfranchise voters in NY-11 and elect a Democrat to this Congressional District contrary to the will of voters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s congressional map unconstitutionally \u201cdilutes Black and Latino voting strength\u201d in the Empire State\u2019s Republican-held 11th District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[858,419,12885,3100,13305,9,24,887,63,87,134,136,135,7316,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-19423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-courts","10":"tag-gerrymandering","11":"tag-lawsuit","12":"tag-midterm-elections","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nicole-malliotakis","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-staten-island","19":"tag-staten-island-headlines","20":"tag-staten-island-news","21":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","22":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423","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=19423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}