NY slammed over Staten Island-Brooklyn gerrymander

MANHATTAN (CN) — Four New Yorkers sued the state and its elections board Monday, claiming the New York congressional map drowns out Black and Latino votes in Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

The plaintiffs claim the boundaries of New York’s 11th Congressional District, which despite featuring regular growth of Black and Latino populations over the past four decades, has “not translate[d] to increased political influence at the federal level.”

“CD-11’s antiquated boundaries instead confine Staten Island’s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections for their representative of choice, despite the existence of strong racially polarized voting and a history of racial discrimination and segregation on Staten Island,” the plaintiffs claim in a 29-page lawsuit, filed in New York County Supreme Court.

They say that from 1980 to 2020, the combined Black and Latino population on Staten Island climbed from 11% to nearly 30%, while the island’s white population dropped from 85% to 56%.

Since the district’s current configuration fails to account for that demographic shift, the four New Yorkers say Black and Latino residents are being unconstitutionally disenfranchised under state law. They cite the state’s newly passed Voting Rights Act, which they claim specifically prevents this type of racial vote dilution.

“The NY VRA protects coalition and minority influence districts, or districts where racial minorities do not form a numerical majority but can form coalitions with other racial minorities and white voters to influence elections and elect their representatives of choice,” the plaintiffs say.

New York’s 11th Congressional District is currently represented by Republican Nicole Malliotakis, a staunch ally to President Donald Trump who was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2020. Three years prior, she ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign against the eventual Democratic winner Bill de Blasio.

Black and Latino candidates have historically “achieved little success in Staten Island elections,” according to the plaintiffs, despite the demographics’ steady population growth in the area. Staten Island has never elected a Black representative to the House of Representatives. And in fact, Malliotakis, whose mother is Cuban, is the first Latina to represent the district there.

“But Representative Malliotakis is not the candidate of choice for either Black or Hispanic voters,” the plaintiffs claim, noting that Black and Hispanic voters supported her opponents in “substantial numbers.”

Two of the four plaintiffs are Staten Island residents living in New York’s 11th District, which they say is gerrymandered to the detriment of Black and Latino voices. The other two plaintiffs are Manhattan residents in the neighboring 10th Congressional District who say they should be residing in a district that allows them to “form a coalition” with the disenfranchised members of the 11th.

They want a judge to order the state to redraw the district’s boundaries, “in which Staten Island is paired with voters in lower Manhattan to create a minority influence district in DC-11 that complies with traditional redistricting criteria.”

The lawsuit thrusts New York into a nationwide battle over congressional redistricting, as both Democrats and Republicans vie for control of the House of Representatives ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Texas, Missouri and North Carolina have already redrawn congressional maps to benefit Republicans ahead of next year’s election. Several other legislatures in red states have suggested they’d try to do the same, while Democratic states like California and Virginia indicated a willingness to fight back by redrawing their maps, too.

Elias Law Group LLP, perhaps the nation’s top pro-Democrat election law firm, represents the New Yorkers, as does civil rights firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel.

New York’s scrutinized election map was just approved last year by a bipartisan redistricting commission, potentially making it difficult for Democrats to change the map again so soon.

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