California Republicans have urged the Supreme Court to block the state’s new congressional map, accusing state officials of gerrymandering.
“California cannot create districts by race, and the state should not be allowed to lock in districts that break federal law,” California Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin said in a statement, as per KCRA3. “Our emergency application asks the Supreme Court to put the brakes on Prop. 50 now, before the Democrats try to run out the clock and force candidates and voters to live with unconstitutional congressional districts. Californians deserve fair districts and clean elections, not a backroom redraw that picks winners and losers based on race.”
According to the filing, California “expressly used race as the ‘predominant factor’ in placing ‘a significant number of voters within or without’ Congressional District 13.” If the matter is not addressed, the “pernicious and unconstitutional use of race will irreparably harm Applicants and the public.”
The filing comes as a three-judge panel upheld California’s new redistricting maps approved through Proposition 50 last week, ruling against arguments that the maps favored Hispanics.
In a 2-1 decision, the court found that “Challengers have failed to show that racial gerrymandering occurred, and we conclude that there is no basis for issuing a preliminary injunction. Our conclusion probably seems obvious to anyone who followed the news in the summer and fall of 2025.”
Judge Kenneth Lee dissented from the majority decision by Judge Josephine Staton and Judge Wesley Hsu. Lee argued that the court “should have acted to prevent California from following an unlawful path that will inevitably sow racial divisions and upset the melting pot that makes California great.”
