California’s Supreme Court on Wednesday evening rejected Republicans’ efforts to stall work on Democrats’ redistricting proposals.
Republican legislators earlier this week asked the state’s Supreme Court to intervene and hit the brakes on redistricting efforts underway in the statehouse.
They argued, in their petition to the court, that the proposed redistricting legislation must be published for 30 days before the legislature can hear or act on it. The filing alleged that rule was “circumvented” by the legislature by replacing two unrelated bills with the redistricting proposal, a move called “gut and amend” by those in Sacramento.
They asked the court to halt any work on the legislative package until mid-September.
But the court said, in its order on Wednesday, Aug. 20, that the petitioners “failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time” under the state’s constitution.
The full legislature is set to vote Thursday on the redistricting package, which includes newly redrawn congressional maps and a call for a special election on Nov. 4, when voters would decide whether to implement those partisan maps for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections.
The effort has been touted by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democrats as a way to counter plans in other, Republican-led states to enact mid-cycle gerrymandering ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
California would only have a special election to change its congressional districts if other states also went through with partisan, mid-cycle redistricting.
The Texas House earlier Wednesday approved new congressional maps meant to give Republicans a boost in 2026, at the behest of President Donald Trump.
The California Republicans’ lawsuit was led by Sens. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, and Suzette Martinez Valladares, R-Santa Clarita, as well as Assemblymembers Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita, and Tri Ta, R-Westminster.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is not the end of this fight,” the Republican legislators said in a statement. “Although the Court denied our petition, it did not explain the reason for its ruling. This means Gov. Newsom and the Democrats’ plan to gut the voter-created Citizens Redistricting Commission, silence public input, and stick taxpayers with a $200+ million bill will proceed. Polls show most Democrats, Republicans, and independents want to keep the commission, not give politicians the power to rig maps. We will continue to challenge this unconstitutional power grab in the courts and at the ballot box.”
Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero signed Wednesday’s order.