A New York state judge on Wednesday invalidated part of the state’s congressional map related to Staten Island, finding it violated language in the state’s constitution that prohibits districts from abridging the rights of minority voters.
The ruling, from Judge Jeffrey Pearlman, barred the state from using the 2024 map in any elections and ordered the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to draw a new map by Feb. 6.
Pearlman found that the current map, which joins Staten Island with parts of Brooklyn and is represented by Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, minimizes the power of minority voters on the island. Pearlman wrote that the challengers have “shown through testimony and by empirical data that the history of discrimination against minority voters in CD-11 still impacts these communities today.”
