ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Republicans are looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the boundaries of the only red congressional seat in New York City from being redrawn, after suffering a bruising loss in state court on Thursday.
The attempts to stop U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ district from changing are the latest moves in a winding legal battle that could have major implications in this year’s fight for control of the House.
A state judge threw out the boundaries last month, after an election law firm aligned with the Democratic Party argued the district dilutes the power of Black and Latino voters in Staten Island and southern Brooklyn.
After weeks of uncertainty, a state appeals court issued a brief decision Thursday that sided with Democrats, effectively telling the state's redistricting commission to start working on a new congressional map.
Now, Republicans are hoping the the U.S. Supreme Court will step in, after Malliotakis and GOP elections officials last week filed emergency appeals seeking to put a hold on the original ruling.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has been unequivocal: race-based redistricting violates the U.S. Constitution,” Malliotakis said in a statement Thursday. "I look forward to the Supreme Court’s intervention in this case to uphold the rule of law and preserve the integrity of our elections.”
The Supreme Court has recently allowed Texas and California to use new maps for this year’s election.
New lines in Malliotakis' district could provide an opportunity for Democrats in this year's midterm elections, as both political parties have been aggressively angling for any advantage as they battle for control of the House.
But the redrawn map is still far from clear even as candidate petitioning — a vital step to get on the ballot — is set to begin next Tuesday. Even if the Supreme Court declines to intervene, it would still take time for the state commission charged with drawing new lines to complete the politically sensitive task.
The uncertainty reverberates beyond Malliotakis’ district, too, since changing the boundaries of one district affects others, said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
“The clock is not the candidates’ friend on this one — unless the courts rule that Pearlman got it wrong and everything stays the way that it is,” Horner said, referencing the trial court judge, Jeffrey Pearlman, who threw out the district's borders.
In the appeal to the Supreme Court, an attorney for Malliotakis wrote that Pearlman's ruling has thrown “New York’s upcoming election into chaos."
She has asked the high court to decide by Monday, so that petitioning can begin the next day under the current congressional map. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice filed a brief supporting the requests.
Democrats were required to file documents to the Supreme Court on Thursday, though it's not clear exactly when the court would rule in the New York case.