U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis is appealing a court decision that would force NY-11 to be redrawn.
File photo by Todd Maisel/File photo courtesy of Getty Images
Republican congress member Nicole Malliotakis is appealing a judge’s ruling that would force her district to be redrawn.
Manhattan Supreme Court judge Jeffrey Pearlman last week said the existing lines of NY-11 are unconstitutional and disempower Black and Latino voters within the district. He ordered the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to draw up a new map by Feb. 6, so it could be used for the upcoming midterm elections.
Attorneys representing Malliotakis and five voters in her district are seeking to toss that ruling and keep the district as is, and on Monday filed appeals in both the appellate division of the Manhattan Supreme Court and the higher New York State Court of Appeals.
They will also file an emergency motion to stay the decision, attorney Bennet J. Moskowitz said in a Jan. 26 letter to the judge, hoping to prevent maps from being redrawn while the appeal is being heard in court.
John Faso, a lawyer representing Malliotakis and the constituents, said the court’s decision was “flawed from beginning to end.”
The current configuration of NY-11, which includes all of Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn. Image courtesy of NYS GIS Data 
An illustrated map showing a potential reconfiguration of NY-11, included in court documents. Image via NY Supreme Court
The original lawsuit against the existing district lines, which was filed by four New York City voters last fall, claimed the 2024 congressional map ignored changing demographics on Staten Island and violated the state’s Constitution and Voting Rights Act by “unlawfully diluting the votes of Black and Latino voters in NY-11.”
“The fundamental problem is the New York Voting Rights Act does not apply to congressional or legislative redistricting,” Faso said.
Judge Pearlman, in his decision, acknowledged the NY VRA does not apply to redistricting, but said the New York State Constitution “provides greater protections against racial vote dilution than the federal constitution or the federal Voting Rights Act.”
As such, Pearlman wrote, the court was responsible for examining the “totality of circumstances” regarding the alleged constitutional violations. Based on the analysis of evidence and testimony presented in court, Pearlman said there was “strong support for the claim that Black and Latino votes are being diluted in the current NY-11,” and that “it is evident that without adding Black and Latino voters from elsewhere, those voters already affected by race discrimination will remain a diluted population indefinitely.”
The decision was lauded by the New York NAACP, which said Black and Latino voters in NY-11 had “been packed into a congressional district that dilutes their voting strength and denies them a meaningful opportunity to elect a representative of their choice.”
But Faso said Pearlman “decided the case on factors that were not even argued in court.”
“The fact is, the original case was a political gerrymander masquerading as a voting rights case, and the judge’s decision is a political gerrymander based upon a racial gerrymandering argument,” he said. “I think, on appeal, this case is going to be tossed.”
Malliotakis is New York City’s only Republican congress member. File photo courtesy of REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
It’s not clear how the appeal will impact the drawing of new maps. The court ruled on Jan. 22 that the IRC would have to draw new maps for NY-11 by Feb. 6, as congressional candidates running in the upcoming midterm elections are supposed to start circulating petitions by Feb. 24.
“Time is of the essence this matter, as the Order has now thrown New York’s 2026 Congressional Election — slated to begin on February 24, 2026 — into chaos,” Moskowitz wrote in his letter to the judge.”
He said his clients would need “clarity” as to whether a stay would be granted and the 2026 midterms to move forward under existing maps by Feb. 10. If that timeline is missed, he said, they will seek “emergency relief from the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Malliotakis is New York City’s only Republican congress member, and a redrawn NY-11 would likely benefit Democrats across the borough. If a new NY-11 included parts of lower Manhattan, rather than southern Brooklyn, it could be won by a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, who currently represents lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn in NY-10, has indicated that he would jump into the race in an effort to “retake the majority and make Hakeem Jeffries Speaker of the House.”