New York officials urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to reject the GOP’s petition seeking to maintain New York City’s lone GOP-held House seat to its current boundaries for the 2026 election.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and other New York Republican officials filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court last week asking for the justices to halt a state court’s ruling that ordered the Empire State’s 11th Congressional District to be redrawn ahead of the midterm elections. The state court held that the current boundaries unlawfully dilute the power of minority voters, and that ruling called for a redraw that could net Democrats the GOP-held Staten Island seat.
New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood filed a brief with the high court Thursday on behalf of New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and state Attorney General Letitia James, urging the court to reject the petition and arguing it is a state matter that should remain with the state courts.
“The application should be denied because it asks this Court to intrude on questions of state election administration in the context of state court litigation that involves a careful balancing of interests that is the prerogative of the State and its courts to conduct,” the brief said.
“Applicants base their purportedly urgent need for a stay on an election-calendar date that is purely a creature of state law,” the brief continued. “But there is sufficient time for New York’s appellate courts to resolve applicants’ appeals on the merits while addressing any such upcoming state-law election-calendar dates. And it is New York courts, not federal courts, that should decide how to balance competing interests in minimizing disruptions to state-law election-calendar dates and in ensuring that the State’s election district map is lawful.”
Malliotakis urged the high court to halt the redrawing of the congressional district, saying in her brief that the state court has “thrown New York’s elections into chaos on the eve of the 2026 Congressional Election,” and urged a ruling by Feb. 23 ahead of election deadlines in the state. The petition stated the state court’s ruling is a “recipe for unconstitutional chaos, with no map in place and uncertainty as to whether nominating petitions can start circulating on February 24, with no end in sight.”
SUPREME COURT UPDATES RULES TO HELP FIND ‘POTENTIAL CONFLICTS FOR THE JUSTICES’
The Supreme Court has been asked twice in recent months on its emergency docket to rule on congressional maps for the 2026 elections, including Texas’s and California’s.
In both cases, the Supreme Court allowed the newly enacted maps to be used for the upcoming midterm elections. The two maps are a part of the wider redistricting war between Democrat-led and GOP-led states, as the majority in the House of Representatives is set to be hotly contested in November.