New York must redraw its congressional map, a state judge ruled on Wednesday, handing Democrats another key opportunity to pick up another US House seat before this fall’s midterm elections.
The ruling from Jeffrey Pearlman, a New York state supreme court justice, comes after a Democratic-aligned law firm challenged the boundaries of New York’s 11th congressional district, which includes the borough of Staten Island and portions of south Brooklyn. The district is currently represented by Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, the only GOP member representing New York City in Congress.
The suit alleged that the current configuration of the district diminished the influence of Black and Latino voters. Pearlman agreed with that argument, saying the district boundaries violated a provision of the state constitution that requires districts to be drawn in such a way that “based on the totality of the circumstances, racial or minority language groups do not have less opportunity to participate in the political process than other members of the electorate and to elect representatives of their choice”.
The provision was added to the state constitution through a voter referendum in 2014.
The judge said the petitioners had shown strong evidence of a “racially polarized voting bloc”, as well as “a history of discrimination that impacts current day political participation and representation” and “that racial appeals are still made in political campaigns today”.
“Based on the facts presented by the expert witness reports and on the record, it is clear to the court that the current district lines of CD-11 are a contributing factor in the lack of representation for minority voters,” he wrote in his opinion. “Without adding Black and Latino voters from elsewhere, those voters already affected by race discrimination will remain a diluted population indefinitely.”
Pearlman ordered the bipartisan redistricting commission in charge of drawing congressional districts to draw a new map by 6 February. In New York, the state legislature gets final approval over the maps drawn by the commission, and can draw its own map if it rejects two proposals for the same body.
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, said Wednesday’s ruling “is the first step toward ensuring communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan. The voters of New York deserve the fairest congressional map possible.”
The ruling opens the door for Democrats to pick up another seat in a nasty redistricting battle taking place before the 2026 midterms. Republicans in Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have already redrawn their maps to add as many as seven Republican seats. Republicans may also be able to pick up another seat or two under redrawn maps in Ohio.
Democrats have countered those efforts in California with a constitutional amendment that could add as many as five Democratic seats. Democrats in Virginia are also pushing ahead with a plan that could add as many as four Democratic seats.
Republicans had bashed the lawsuit as a clear effort to game the district to help Democrats and eliminate one of the few remaining GOP districts in the state. Home to around 500,000 people, Staten Island is New York City’s smallest and most suburban borough, better resembling nearby New Jersey towns than the metropolis of Manhattan, just a ferry ride across the river.
In a statement after the ruling, Malliotakis said: “This is a frivolous attempt by Washington Democrats to steal this congressional seat from the people and we are very confident that we will prevail at the end of the day.”
The Associated Press contributed reporting
