U.S. Supreme Court halts effort to redraw Rep. Malliotakis’ district in Staten Island, south Brooklyn

For now, New York City’s sole Republican representative in the U.S. Congress will keep her district as Democrats work in the courts to keep its borders — a win for the GOP as midterm elections loom.

On Monday, the United States Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling — a vote that fell along party lines — lifts a Manhattan judge’s order to pause an order that would have required a reconfiguration of New York’s congressional district lines, which may have resulted in the dissolution of U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis’ seat.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman found in January that the boundaries of New York’s 11th Congressional District unlawfully dilute the voting power of Black and Latino residents, who make up roughly 30% of Staten Island’s population.

Malliotakis and other election officials asked both SCOTUS and New York’s Appellate Division, First Department to pause Pearlman’s order. But on Feb. 19, the First Department, which is based in Manhattan, declined to do so.

Writing for the majority on the high court in its ruling late Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said Pearlman’s ruling — which included an order for New York’s Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw congressional district lines to tip the scales back toward Black and Latino votes — amounted to “unadorned racial discrimination.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the dissent that SCOTUS has consistently held that “federal courts should not meddle with state election laws ahead of an election.”

“Today, the Court says: except for this one, except for this one, and except for this one,” Sotomayor wrote.