The state Republican Party on Tuesday filed an emergency request asking the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an injunction to prevent congressional districts that California voters approved last year from taking effect.
Arguing that the districts created by Proposition 50 violate federal law because voters' race was considered when they were drawn, the filing urges the court to act by Feb. 9 because of deadlines for candidates to file to run for public office.
“Our emergency petition asks the Supreme Court to stop Proposition 50 now, before Democrats try to run out the clock and force candidates and voters to live with unconstitutional congressional districts,” state GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin said in a statement. “Californians deserve fair districts and clean elections, not a new lottery that picks winners and losers based on race.”
A spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who led the unusual mid-decade redistricting effort and is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Redrawing of congressional districts typically occurs once a decade, after the U.S. census, to account for population changes. In California, the lines are drawn by an independent, voter-approved commission to stop partisan gerrymandering and protect incumbents.
After President Trump urged leaders in Texas and other GOP-led states to redraw their delegation districts to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress in November's midterm elections, Newsom and other Democratic leaders responded by crafting a plan to increase the number of their party's members in California's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans currently hold a very narrow majority, and which party controls Congress after the November elections will determine whether Trump can continue to implement his agenda during his final two years in office.
California voters handily approved Proposition 50, one of the most expensive ballot measure campaigns in state history. The state Republican Party and others immediately challenged the new districts, but earlier this month, two members of a three-judge federal panel rejected their claim that the district lines were drawn to illegally favor Latino voters.
