A law firm is challenging New York’s congressional map that includes parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, the first step in a process that could allow the state’s lawmakers to draw new lines in a national mid-decade redistricting arms race, according to the Gothamist.
The Marc Elias Group filed a lawsuit Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that Black and Latino voters on Staten Island are unfairly marginalized by the current map. Attorney Marc Elias has brought cases for Democrats across the country on election and redistricting cases, the news site said.
The plaintiffs say the 11th District, which includes Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights and is represented by U.S. Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, should be redrawn to include parts of Lower Manhattan.
Malliotakis categorized the lawsuit as "frivolous."
"Here we go again…another frivolous lawsuit trying to upend our congressional district in an attempt to tilt the scale to give Democrats an advantage in next year’s election," she said on X. "To claim our independently drawn map somehow disenfranchised Hispanics and other minorities when I’m the first Hispanic & minority member elected to represent this district is a new low! We defeated them twice before and we’ll do it again."
U.S. Representative Dan Goldman, who represents lower Manhattan, said if Staten Island is drawn into his district, he will be ready to "take the fight for democracy and a Democratic House majority to Nicole Malliotakis’ doorstep."
"Nothing can stand in the way of us defeating Donald Trump and his spineless lackeys in Congress," Goldman said in a statement. "Flipping the House isn’t optional – our future depends on it.”
The plaintiffs in the case are four voters — a Black man, a white woman, a Latino man and a Latino woman — who live in Staten Island and Manhattan, Gothamist reported. The defendants in the lawsuit are Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins as well as the state Board of Elections.
