CA Supreme Court rejects GOP bid to stop redistricting

By Dave Mason
The Center Square

The California Supreme Court rejected an emergency Republican petition to take congressional redistricting off the Nov. 4 ballot.

“The petition for writ of mandate and application for stay are denied,” the court said Wednesday, two days after Republicans, including several legislators, filed it.

“48 hours later, this case has already been rejected,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X. “Keep em coming, @GOP. We’ll keep winning.”

The GOP petition argued legislators legally can’t draw a congressional map because under the California Constitution, redistricting is done by an independent commission of citizens. The Republicans were represented in the petition by the Dhillon Law Group, which was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant U.S. attorney general heading the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

The Republican petitioners in the case included state Sens. Tony Strickland and Suzette Valladares and Assemblymembers Tri Ta and Kate Sanchez. Also among the petitioners were Eric Ching, Mike Ward, Andrew Pandol and Roger Holland. The petition was filed against Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, and the Legislature.

“Redistricting as regulated by the California Constitution is not just a take-it-or-leave-it decision over a proposed map,” the petition said. “Long before a map is proposed for a final decision or certified, regardless of who draws it, redistricting is a laborious process that requires extensive technical analysis and careful balancing of complex constitutional and statutory mandates.”

Petitioners said Democrats “rammed this complex scheme in just 4 days,” violating Article IV, Section 8(a) of 30 days’ public notice of new legislation. Republicans accused Democrats of violating other parts of the state constitution as well.

“Allowing this unconstitutional measure onto the ballot would impose needless costs and uncertainty on both election officials and the public,” the petitioners said.

On Aug. 21, the court rejected a previous Republican effort to stop the Legislature from acting immediately on the redistricting plan. The Election Rigging Response Act was approved that day by the Democratic supermajorities in the California Senate and Assembly. It was immediately signed afterward by Newsom.

The legislation put Proposition 50 on the Nov. 4 ballot. Voters are being asked to amend the California Constitution to undo significant parts of the work of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission and adopt a new map designed to add five Democratic seats to the U.S. House. Newsom and other Democratic leaders have said the move is necessary to counter Texas’ redistricting efforts resulting in five additional Republican seats in the House.

In the meantime, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher and other Republicans legislators have acted to counter California redistricting with a bill to create a new state consisting of 35, mainly inland counties. But Gallagher would need support of a number of Democrats to get his bill approved by both houses of the Legislature. If approved by the state Assembly and Senate, it would then need Congress’ approval.