(The Center Square) — New York Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a redistricting fight over one of the state’s GOP congressional districts.
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, filed an emergency appeal Thursday with Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a last-ditch effort to overturn a lower court ruling ordering the state redraw the lines of her district ahead of the midterm elections. The petition requests a stay of the lower court’s order pending the outcome of the case.
In January, state Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman, who sided with Democratic lawyers who argued that the boundaries of her 11th Congressional District unlawfully diluted the voices of Black and Latino voters in Staten Island.
The judge ordered New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw the district boundaries and blocked elections until the new lines are finalized.
But New York State Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox, who joined with Malliotakis in petitioning the Supreme Court to take up the case, said the judge’s ruling was “flawed” and will “result in extreme disruption of the election process” if allowed to stand.
“The nakedly partisan decision by Justice Pearlman would impose a racial gerrymander, contrary to U.S. Supreme Court precedent,” he said in a statement. The case was brought by extreme Democratic partisans and is an insult to the voters of NY-11.
He said New York’s 11th Congressional District “has existed as a Staten Island/Southern Brooklyn district since 1982 and is compact, reflects communities of interest, and is politically competitive.”
The legal fight stems from a lawsuit filed in October by a group of Staten Island and Brooklyn voters who want the district redrawn to connect Staten Island to parts of lower Manhattan, which could reshape the state’s congressional landscape and peel the seat away from Republicans.
Malliotakis and several members of the New York State Board of Elections have also filed appeals to Pearlman’s ruling in the New York State Court of Appeals and the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court, asking both courts to block the lower court’s decision to avoid “chaos” in the upcoming midterm elections. Neither has ruled on the case.
New York’s redistricting commission approved new boundaries for the state’s congressional districts last year after the state’s highest court ordered the maps to be drawn for the 2024 election.
Republicans sought unsuccessfully to block the redrawn maps, which were signed into law by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
New York’s congressional districts are currently split 19 to 7 in favor of Democrats, who currently control the state Legislature and the governor’s office. The state is viewed as a battleground in the upcoming midterm elections, when control of Congress is up for grabs.
Earlier this year, Hochul vowed to redraw the blue state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats after the Texas’ Legislature moves ahead with a GOP-led redistricting plan ahead of next year’s midterm election.
