Judge overturns New York City limits

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday vacated the boundaries of New York City’s only congressional district represented by a Republican and ordered the state to redraw its borders because its current makeup unconstitutionally dilutes the votes of Black and Hispanic residents.

Republicans are expected to appeal the decision, as a new front opens in a national gerrymandering battle that has both political parties vying for the upper hand in the fight for control of the US House of Representatives.

Lawmakers in about a third of states have considered redrawing their congressional districts after President Donald Trump pressured Republicans to draw new lines that would help his party maintain its narrow majority in the House. Democrats responded with their own redistricting efforts, although they have sometimes been hampered by laws they passed aimed at preventing partisan gerrymandering.

News

In his ruling Wednesday, Judge Jeffrey Pearlman said the New York district represented by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, which includes the entire Staten Island district and a small part of Brooklyn, should be reconfigured before this year’s midterm elections.

The lawsuit, filed by an election law firm aligned with the Democratic Party, argued that the district lines do not represent an increase in Staten Island’s black and Latino population. He pushed for the district to be redrawn to include parts of lower Manhattan, which has a more liberal leaning.

The judge said the petitioners had shown compelling evidence of a “racially polarized voting bloc,” as well as “a history of discrimination affecting current political participation and representation” and “that racial appeals are still made in today’s political campaigns.”

But rather than redraw the seat himself, Pearlman ordered New York’s bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw the district’s boundaries by Feb. 6, a deadline that is fast approaching.

The redistricting panel has primary power to draw congressional maps, and it is supposed to do so without gerrymandering boundaries to give either party a political advantage. But in the past, that commission has sometimes failed to reach agreement on the makeup of a district, which then gave the Democratic-controlled state legislature the ability to redraw the lines in its favor.

Republicans had criticized the lawsuit as a clear attempt to mislead the district to help Democrats. Staten Island, home to about 500,000 people, is the smallest, most suburban borough of New York City, and is more like the nearby cities of New Jersey than the metropolis of Manhattan, just a ferry ride across the harbor.

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.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had promised to join the national fight over redistricting, but she had few legislative avenues to substantially change the state’s congressional lines before the election. Currently, New York State is represented in the House by 19 Democrats and 7 Republicans.

The state’s current map was drawn by Democrats, after a protracted battle in which they rejected a proposal drawn up by the bipartisan redistricting commission, and was designed to give their party a boost in some contested districts ahead of the 2024 elections. Democrats gained some seats in New York under that map, although Republicans ultimately won the majority in the House.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday’s ruling “is the first step in ensuring that communities of interest remain intact from Staten Island to Lower Manhattan. New York voters deserve the fairest congressional map possible.”