SCOTUS Blocks New York Dems Attempt to Redraw Congressional Map
The U.S. Supreme Court handed Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis a significant victory Monday, blocking an effort to redraw her Staten Island-based congressional district ahead of the midterm elections.
The high court intervened after Malliotakis challenged a January ruling from a New York state judge that ordered the state’s redistricting commission to overhaul the boundaries of the 11th Congressional District. The congresswoman argued the decision amounted to a racially motivated gerrymander that would disrupt elections and tilt the seat toward Democrats.
“Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to keep New York’s 11th Congressional District intact helps restore the public’s confidence in our judicial system and proves the challenge to our district lines was always meritless,” Malliotakis said in a statement.
“The plaintiffs in this case attempted to manipulate our state’s courts to use race as a weapon to rig our elections. That was wrong and, as demonstrated by today’s ruling, clearly unconstitutional,” she added.
New York’s 11th District covers all of Staten Island and portions of southern Brooklyn and is currently the only Republican-held congressional seat in New York City. Democrats had targeted the district as a potential pickup opportunity in the upcoming election cycle, and the proposed redraw was expected to make the seat more competitive.
The initial ruling ordering the district to be redrawn came from New York Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Pearlman, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. Pearlman concluded that the existing map diluted the voting strength of Black and Latino residents and directed the state’s redistricting commission to redraw the district.
Malliotakis challenged the decision, warning the order would create confusion and disrupt election preparations just months before the midterms.
In a written opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said the state court’s order mandating a redraw “blatantly discriminates on the basis of race.”
The court’s liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued the Supreme Court was improperly intervening in a state election matter close to an election.
“Time and again, this court has said that federal courts should not meddle with state election laws ahead of an election,” Sotomayor wrote. “Today, the court says: except for this one, except for this one, and except for this one.”
The decision represents a setback for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats who have pushed for mid-cycle redistricting efforts in blue states as a counterweight to Republican-led map changes elsewhere.
The ruling also revives debate over redistricting battles unfolding nationwide ahead of the November elections. Courts in multiple states — including Missouri, Florida, Utah, Wisconsin and Virginia — are weighing lawsuits that could alter congressional maps just months before voters head to the polls.
New York Democrats have already faced scrutiny over congressional maps in recent years. In 2022, state courts struck down a Hochul-backed redistricting plan, ruling that it was drawn with an “impermissible partisan purpose.”
Malliotakis, the daughter of Cuban and Greek immigrants who first won election to Congress in 2020 after defeating a Democratic incumbent, framed the Supreme Court’s decision as protecting voters from political interference.
“Unfortunately, the politicization of New York’s courts and its judges necessitated action from the nation’s highest court,” she said. “I thank the justices who stopped the voters on Staten Island and in Southern Brooklyn from being stripped of their ability to elect a representative who reflects their values.”
The district remains strongly Republican. The Cook Political Report currently rates the seat “Solid Republican,” and President Donald Trump carried the district by roughly 24 percentage points in the 2024 election.
Malliotakis currently faces no primary challenger ahead of the June 23 Republican primary. On the Democratic side, Michael DeCillis, Troy McGhie and Umar Usman are competing for the nomination to challenge her in November.
The Supreme Court’s intervention ensures that the current district lines will remain in place for the upcoming election cycle, preserving one of the GOP’s key footholds in New York City as broader redistricting battles continue across the country.
Obama Accuses JD Vance Of Promoting ‘Blood And Soil’ Politics
Former President Barack Obama rarely mentions Vice President JD Vance by name, but that changed this week with one of his sharpest public attacks since Vance took office.
The comments immediately fueled speculation that Democrats are beginning to focus more attention on the vice president as Republicans look ahead to the post-Trump era.
Speaking Thursday during a conversation with author Malcolm Gladwell, Obama accused Vance of promoting what he described as a “blood and soil” vision of America, despite being married to Usha Vance, the daughter of Indian immigrants.
Obama made the remarks while discussing the Reconstruction era and arguing that many of the same debates over citizenship, voting rights and national identity continue today.
“We have a politics now that at least one of our major parties has been captured by politics that is not that subtle about suggesting that ‘We the people’ means a certain kind of people,” Obama said.
“When you have the vice president, current vice president, making a speech that is basically a blood and soil version of ‘We the people,’ that it matters who your parents were and how long they’ve been here despite him being married to a daughter of an immigrant himself.”
The phrase “blood and soil” is historically associated with Nazi Germany and white nationalist ideology.
Obama went on to argue that debates over who belongs in America remain central to the nation’s politics.
“That echoes, then, ideas about who can be a citizen, who belongs, who gets to make decisions,” he said.
Gladwell followed by accusing Vance of hypocrisy, arguing that the vice president was making what he called a nativist argument despite his own family’s immigrant background.
Obama agreed.
“That is progress,” Obama said.
“Listen, hypocrisy is progress. It is, because it means that you feel guilty enough to either lie to yourself or others.”
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to Vance’s office for comment.
Obama did not identify the specific speech he was criticizing, but Vance’s most recent nationally televised remarks came during Independence Day celebrations marking America’s 250th birthday.
In that speech, Vance encouraged Americans to reject what he called a “two-dimensional view” of the country focused only on its historical failures.
“So what I’d ask you to do, my fellow Americans, on our 250th birthday, is to reject the two-dimensional view of your fellow citizens and reject the two-dimensional view of your country,” Vance said.
“Reject the view of your nation that sees only its sins, but not its grace and its greatness.”
He also emphasized that America’s accomplishments were achieved by “a common people working towards a common future.”
Obama has generally avoided making Vance a regular target since the vice president took office.
One notable exception came during the 2024 presidential campaign when then-Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Without naming Vance directly, Obama contrasted Harris’ choice with the Republican ticket.
“When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate, it says a lot about who they are and what kind of president they’ll be,” Obama said at the time, Fox News reported.
Political observers have increasingly discussed Vance as a potential frontrunner for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, though he has not announced any plans to run.
Against that backdrop, Obama’s unusually direct criticism is likely to fuel speculation that some Democrats are beginning to sharpen their message against a politician they view as a likely future standard-bearer for the Republican Party. While no Democratic leaders have publicly described their strategy in those terms, prominent figures often begin drawing contrasts with potential future rivals well before a presidential campaign officially begins.
Whether that proves to be the case remains to be seen, but Obama’s remarks marked one of his most pointed critiques of Vance to date and ensured the vice president once again found himself at the center of the national political conversation.
