The California Supreme Court rejected a petition Wednesday filed by state Republican legislators seeking to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redistrict California’s congressional map off a special election ballot this fall.
A brief update in the docket announced the petition for a writ of mandate and a request for stay were denied just days after Republican legislators filed their second challenge against the redistricting plan. The case is now listed as closed.
“48 hours later, this case has already been rejected. Keep em coming, @GOP. We’ll keep winning,” Newsom said in a post on social platform X.
The petition, citing constitutional issues, had asked the state Supreme Court to intervene and keep Proposition 50 off the Nov. 4 ballot.
The ballot measure would, if approved by voters, let Democrats redraw congressional lines as a response to Republican redistricting efforts in Texas, bypassing the citizens redistricting commission that typically draws lines once a decade.
Republicans have opposed the plan, arguing it harms election fairness and goes against the voter-approved independent commission. They’ve also raised questions about the cost of a special election and the mechanics of the line-drawing.
Before this week’s challenge, California Republican legislators had filed suit with an earlier petition asking the state Supreme Court to block action on the plan as it made its way through the Legislature, but that too was rejected.
President Trump, who has supported the redistricting push in Texas, has also promised a lawsuit against California to stop the plan.
And the California Assembly’s top Republican, Assembly member James Gallagher, proposed a “two-state solution” for the Golden State on Wednesday, suggesting that 35 inland California counties could split to form a new state as a response to the redistricting plans.
The maps, which would hold through the ’26, ’28 and ’30 elections, would further whittle the GOP’s nine-seat representation among California’s 52-seat House delegation. Reps. Kevin Kiley, Doug LaMalfa, Darrell Issa, Ken Calvert and David Valadao are among the impacted Republican incumbents.
California Democrats are hoping to net five House seats for their party, effectively nullifying the Texas push that’s expected to net five red seats ahead of next year’s midterms.
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