NY redistricting fight heads to Supreme Court as deadlines loom

On Jan. 21, 2026, 🗽New York State Supreme Court Justice JPJeffrey Pearlman ruled that the 11th Congressional District unconstitutionally dilutes Black and Latino voting power. He found strong evidence of racially polarized voting, a documented history of discrimination affecting political participation, and racial appeals still being used in campaigns today. He ordered the state's Independent Redistricting Commission to draw a new map by Feb. 6.

The 11th District covers all of Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn. From 1980 to 2020, Staten Island's combined Black and Latino population climbed from 11% to nearly 30%, while the white population dropped from 85% to 56%. Despite this growth, Staten Island has never elected a Black representative to Congress, and Black and Latino candidates have consistently lost on the island even as their population share tripled.

MEMarc Elias's firm, Elias Law Group, filed the lawsuit (Williams v. Board of Elections) on behalf of four voters — a Black man, a white woman, a Latino man, and a Latina woman — who live in Staten Island and Manhattan. They argued the district should pair Staten Island with parts of Lower Manhattan instead of southern Brooklyn, which would increase minority voting power and create a more competitive district.

The Independent Redistricting Commission refused to meet or draw a new map

Staff told The City that the commission paused its work because of the pending appeal

With hours left before the Feb. 6 deadline, the commission had no meeting scheduled Under state law, the appeal automatically stayed the portion of the order directing the commission to act — giving opponents a procedural tool to run out the clock.

On Feb. 12, Rep. NMNicole Malliotakis and Republican election officials Peter Kosinski, Anthony Casale, and Raymond Riley III filed emergency stay applications at the U.S

Supreme Court (case Nos. 25A914 and 25A915)

Malliotakis argued that the trial court's ruling would force the state to adopt an unconstitutional racial gerrymander The court gave the voters challenging the map until Feb. 19 at 4 PM to respond.

U.S

Solicitor General D

John Sauer filed an uninvited amicus brief supporting the GOP position He called the proposed redraw an open and unabashed racial gerrymander and argued it would violate the Equal Protection Clause by sorting voters by race CNN reported that the Trump DOJ has been filing uninvited briefs at the Supreme Court at an unusual rate, with Sauer stepping in on cases nobody asked the federal government to weigh in on.

🗽New York's candidate petitioning period begins Feb. 24

Candidates need to collect signatures from voters within their specific districts to get on the ballot

If the district lines are not final by then, candidates cannot know which voters to collect signatures from — making any map change after that date practically impossible This timeline pressure is exactly what opponents of the redraw are counting on.

The 🗽New York Voting Rights Act — formally called the John R

Lewis Voting Rights Act of 🗽New York — was signed into law in June 2022

Section 17-206 prohibits vote dilution: drawing district lines that minimize or cancel out the voting strength of minority groups This state law gave the plaintiffs their legal basis after the federal Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County v Holder decision, which removed federal preclearance requirements.