Supreme Court Keeps GOP District for Midterms

The Supreme Court has temporarily reinstated Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis' New York congressional district, halting a state judge's order that the lines be redrawn before the next election. In a brief order Monday, the court granted Malliotakis' emergency request to block a New York trial court ruling that found her Staten Island-Brooklyn district unlawfully weakened the voting power of Black and Latino residents under the state constitution. The stay keeps the current boundaries in place for now, including for upcoming midterm elections, the Hill reports, while the legal fight continues in state courts. The decision appeared to divide the court along familiar ideological lines.

Justice Samuel Alito noted that he would grant Malliotakis' request, while the three justices picked by Democratic presidents publicly dissented; the other GOP-nominated justices did not disclose their votes. The case centers on New York's 11th Congressional District, which now links Staten Island with parts of Brooklyn. Some advocates have pushed to pair Staten Island with Lower Manhattan instead, a shift that could benefit Democrats. Any permanent remapping would be handled by an independent state commission. The dispute in New York is part of the redistricting battle that was spurred by President Donald Trump when he urged Republicans in Texas to redraw the state's congressional districts for political gain. The battle is part of the larger jockeying for advantage in the House that began when President Trump pushed Texas to redraw its districts, per the AP.

Malliotakis, the first minority representative of the district, argued with several voters and state election officials that the state court's directive amounted to a racial gerrymander barred by the US Constitution's equal protection clause. Their filing warned that changing the map so close to the petitioning period would create "unconstitutional chaos." The challengers, represented by Democratic-aligned Elias Law Group, called the Supreme Court application "grossly premature" and said New York's courts should resolve how to interpret the relevant state constitutional provision. The Trump administration backed Malliotakis in a brief, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer contending the state judge had ordered "an open and unabashed racial gerrymander."