Cases & Actions
Williams et al. v. Board of Elections for the State of New York
ELC represents Professors Ruth Greenwood and Nicholas Stephanopoulos, law professors who research and litigate using federal and state voting rights acts. The Amicus Brief seeks to provide the court with the most appropriate framework to understand the petitioners’ claim in Williams et al. V. Board of Elections of the State of New York, et al., utilizing the federal precedent and its application to the New York Voting Rights Act. Amici writes in support of neither side, but to elucidate the reviewing court.
STATUS: OPEN
UPDATED: December 17, 2025
Background
Petitioners challenged New York’s congressional map under the New York Voting Rights Act in October 2025, claiming that District 11 utilized racial gerrymandering and decreased the opportunity for Black and Latino Staten Islanders to influences elections in New York’s 11th Congressional District.
Defendants claim that the New York Voting Rights Act and its provisions only apply to political subdivisions of the state, not to the state itself, and therefore apportionments of statewide maps are outside the purview of the statute.
Amici explain the history of federal voting rights claims and set out the common taxonomies used to assess said claims. They then clarify the differences between “coalition” and “crossover” claims and their appropriate uses in litigation. Finally, Amici set forth a legal standard for crossover claims, like the one Petitioners are using, that is derived from existing case law and scholarship.