Supreme Court blocks redraw of lone GOP-held district in New York City

The Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that will keep New York City’s lone Republican-held congressional district in place for this year’s midterm elections.

The court sided with GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who had asked the justices to block a ruling from a state judge this year that her Staten Island-based 11th District was unconstitutional. The judge said the district diluted Black and Latin voting power and ordered New York’s independent redistricting commission to redraw it.

In granting the stay, Justice Samuel Alito said the order from the state court “blatantly discriminates on the basis of race.”

Republicans had also appealed the decision in the New York state court system. But Alito wrote that the Supreme Court had to act now because “there is an unacceptably strong possibility that the applicants’ appeal in the state court system will not conclude until it is too late for us to review the ultimate decision.”

The candidate filing deadline in New York is April 6.

The Supreme Court’s ruling comes amid an active mid-decade redistricting battle taking place across the country as both parties vie for control of the narrowly divided House this fall. Democrats who had initially filed the lawsuit over the district lines in New York had hoped a redraw would pave the way for them to pick up a seat.

In a lengthy dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized the majority for ruling on a case that was still working its way through the New York state court system.

“By granting these applications, the Court thrusts itself into the middle of every election-law dispute around the country, even as many States redraw their congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election,” she wrote. “It also invites parties searching for a sympathetic ear to file emergency applications directly with this Court, without even bothering to ask the state courts first.”

Six states redrew their maps last year and two more, Florida and Virginia, could enact new congressional boundaries before the midterm elections.

Democrats have particularly struggled to find territory ripe for their redistricting aims, in large part because many Democratic-controlled states, like New York, have turned the map-drawing process over to redistricting commissions rather than state legislatures.