The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new congressional map that voters approved, delivering a major victory for Democrats ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
The decision came down in a one-sentence order that provided no explanation or dissents. Republicans had asked the high court to block California's redrawn district lines, alleging they were racially gerrymandered.
The map, drawn by Democratic lawmakers and passed by voters last November through the Proposition 50 ballot measure, gives the party an opportunity to pick up as many as five House seats as it seeks to win a majority in the chamber this fall.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was a lead proponent of the redistricting push, branding it as a response to a new map enacted last summer in Texas at President Donald Trump's urging, which could similarly net Republicans up to five seats.
“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more Congressional seats in Texas. He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November,” Newsom wrote on X.
The California Republican Party, joined by Trump's Justice Department, sued in federal court to have the new map blocked, alleging that it illegally relied on race.
A federal district court had ruled last month to refuse to block it, concluding that the lines were drawn on a partisan basis, not a racial one as Republicans had argued.
Republicans had asked the Supreme Court to act by Feb. 9. The candidate filing deadline in California is March 6 and the primary is June 2.
Last year, Democrats in Texas made a similar argument to one Republicans made in California when seeking to block the new map in their state from going into effect. Texas Democrats claimed that GOP lawmakers had unlawfully considered race when drawing the state’s new map. A lower court briefly blocked the Texas map before the Supreme Court ruled in December that Texas could implement it for the 2026 elections.
The Texas map, which was pursued at Trump’s urging, sparked an unusually active mid-decade redistricting cycle, with both parties angling for an advantage as they vie for control of the narrowly divided House. Typically, states redraw congressional boundaries at the start of each decade after the new census results.
Newsom had pushed hard for Democrats’ redistricting plan, repeatedly accusing Trump and Republicans of “rigging” the midterm elections with their decision to redraw congressional maps around the country. California Democrats named the bill that authorized the ballot measure special election the Election Rigging Response Act.
