The United States Supreme Court has sided with the New York Republican who challenged the state’s redistricting effort that would have eliminated New York City’s only GOP-held district.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) asked the Court on an emergency basis to restore the lines of her district ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
A lower court ruling found the district’s boundaries unfair to Black and Hispanic residents, ordering the state’s redistricting commission to produce a new map.
Six of the nine Supreme Court Justices disagreed with this assessment, allowing Rep. Malliotakis’ district to remain intact. Dissenting from the majority were Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The Court’s majority did not elaborate on the reasoning behind their decision, as is common for emergency appeals.
Justice Samuel Alito did, however, provide a concurring opinion in which he said that the lower court’s ruling amounted to “unadorned racial discrimination.” Justice Sotomayor authored a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.
In her dissent, Sotomayor did not defend the lower court’s position regarding the legitimacy of New York’s congressional map, but rather she took issue with the Supreme Court’s decision to weigh in on the issue at all with an election on the horizon.
“Time and again, this Court has said that federal courts should not meddle with state election laws ahead of an election,” the dissent read. “Ignoring every limit on federal courts’ authority, the Court takes the unprecedented step of staying a state trial court’s decision in a redistricting dispute on matters of state law without giving the State’s highest court a chance to act.”
Click Here to Read the Full Ruling
Malliotakis praised the Court’s decision in a press release shared earlier this week.
“Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to keep New York’s 11th Congressional District intact helps restore the public’s confidence in our judicial system and proves the challenge to our district lines was always meritless,” the representative said in a statement Monday.
“The plaintiffs in this case attempted to manipulate our state’s courts to use race as a weapon to rig our elections,” she said. “That was wrong and, as demonstrated by today’s ruling, clearly unconstitutional.”
“Unfortunately, the politicization of New York’s courts and its judges necessitated action from the nation’s highest court,” Malliotakis continued. “I thank the Justices who stopped the voters on Staten Island and in Southern Brooklyn from being stripped of their ability to elect a representative who reflects their values.”
“Whether I serve another term in Congress is a decision for the voters, not Democrat party bosses and their high-priced lawyers,” she said.
Click Here to Read Rep. Malliotakis’ Full Press Release
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court allowed redrawn congressional maps in both Texas and California to stand despite allegations of racial gerrymandering.
While the Texas map is expected to flip five seats held by Democrats to the GOP, California expects to see five Republican seats go to members of the Democratic party.
California’s redistricting push came as a response to Texas’ own efforts, as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) promised at the time to take steps to “nullify what happens in Texas,” calling it a “power grab” by President Donald Trump (R).
[RELATED: Supreme Court Allows California to Use Redrawn Congressional Maps for 2026 Election]
Changing California’s congressional maps required voter approval, however, as the new maps would be overriding the ones created by the state’s independent redistricting commission. Residents green-lit the move in November with 64 percent support.
Typically, congressional maps are updated just once every ten years in accordance with the latest Census results.
With both California’s and Texas’ maps in effect for the upcoming 2026 election cycle, their respective impacts on the overall balance of power in Congress are expected to cancel each other out.
