Lawyers for New York City’s sole Republican member of Congress asked the U.S. Supreme court to intervene in a state court order that would redraw her district and be likely to disadvantage her reelection campaign.
U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, who represents Staten Island and southern Brooklyn, filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court Thursday to stop the Manhattan Supreme Court’s decision from moving forward. Her attorneys argued that waiting on the state appellate courts could delay the election cycle’s Feb. 24 starting deadline.
In late January, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman ruled in favor of four New York City residents who had contested the lines of 11th Congressional District on the grounds they unlawfully dilute the voting power of Black and Latino residents.
Malliotakis’ petition calls the order “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.”
The petition describes the order to reconfigure the congressional district as one that would force the state to “racially gerrymander” it. Her attorneys justified the decision to leapfrog the state’s appellate courts by arguing that they will be too slow to respond before the formal start of this year’s primary process, causing “irreparable harm” to both Malitokis and the general public.
As a remedy, Malliotakis is asking the court to revert to her existing congressional district for the coming election.
Aria Branch, the plaintiffs’ attorney, shot back in a written response to the lawsuit that New York’s court system is capable of sorting this out “without undue federal interference.”
“The Republicans’ desperate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is both premature and improper,” said Branch, a partner at Elias Law Group, which focuses on Democratic Party redistricting fights.
The federal petition points out that the lower court’s decision is temporarily paused while the state appellate courts consider the case, and the Independent Redistricting Commission, the bipartisan state body tasked with drawing a new map, “is automatically stayed.”
Malliotakis is not the only party who wants a swift resolution to the case. While the IRC cannot formally propose a new map until the higher court issues a ruling on the case, Democratic members of the body have pleaded with their Republican colleagues to start the process on a voluntary basis, so that they could be ready to meet the February deadline when higher court makes a decision. Lawyers revealed in a hearing earlier this week that Republican members have refused to meet with them.
Malliotakis’ lawyers offered a three-part argument for why the Supreme Court would side with them, arguing that the equal protection concerns would not hold up to scrutiny, due process concerns and that the court’s decision violates state election laws.
The federal court has not responded to the lawsuit yet.
