Supreme Court upholds California gerrymander

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks about the ‘Election Rigging Response Act’

(Image credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

What happened

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use its newly redrawn congressional map in this year’s midterm elections. There were no dissents in the brief emergency docket order, which rejected a “last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration” to reject the voter-approved redistricting plan, The Associated Press said.

Who said what

California’s new map is “designed to flip up to five seats now held by Republicans, part of a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting battle spurred by President Donald Trump,” the AP said. Wednesday’s ruling came two months after the Supreme Court “cleared the way for the Texas map” that “kicked off” the “gerrymandering fight,” NPR said. With both maps upheld, “the end result is that the two states may essentially cancel out each other’s partisan gains.”

“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more congressional seats in Texas,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said on social media. “He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November.”

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What next?

Legal battles are “still playing out over other new congressional maps,” NPR said. GOP-led Florida and Democratic-led Maryland have both taken steps to “join the list of states that have redistricted before the midterms.” Republicans are challenging new court-ordered Democratic-leaning districts in New York and Utah, and Virginia’s top court Wednesday agreed to adjudicate a challenge to that state’s proposed Democratic gerrymander. The California ruling also “served as a reminder” that the Supreme Court has “yet to rule on a broader challenge” to a Voting Rights Act provision that considers race in redistricting, The New York Times said.

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.