State GOP seeks Supreme Court injunction to block California’s new, voter-approved congressional districts
The state Republican party filed an emergency petition Tuesday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an injunction to stop the congressional districts California voters approved last year from taking effect.
Arguing that the districts created by Proposition 50 violate federal law because voter race is taken into account when structuring, the application requests that the court take action by February 9 because the application deadlines for candidates to run for office have expired.
“Our emergency filing asks the Supreme Court to put the brakes on Proposition 50 before Democrats try to run out the clock and force candidates and electors to live in unconstitutional congressional districts,” state GOP chair Corrin Rankin said in a statement. “Californians deserve fair districts and clean elections, not reorganization against a backdrop that picks winners and losers based on race.”
A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who led rare mid-decade redistricting efforts and is one of those joining the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for coverage.
Redrawing of congressional districts typically occurs every ten years after the U.S. Census to account for population changes. In California, borders are drawn by a voter-approved independent commission to curb partisanship and incumbent protection.
After President Trump called on leaders in Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their delegations’ districts to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress in the November midterm elections, Newsom and other Democratic leaders responded by drafting a plan to increase the number of members of their own party in the California delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold a slim majority, and the party that controls Congress after the November election will determine whether Trump can continue to implement his agenda during his final two years in office.
California voters easily passed Proposition 50, one of the most expensive ballot campaigns in state history. The state GOP and others immediately objected to the new districts, but earlier this month, two members of a three-judge federal panel rejected the argument that district lines were illegally drawn to favor Latino voters.
