California Republicans sue state over 'unconstitutional' redistricting measures

California Republicans have sued Secretary of State Shirley Weber and the Legislature of the State of California over the state’s attempts to counter Texas’ redistricting efforts, calling it "unconstitutional." The emergency petition was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of California on Monday.

The case was filed by Assemblywoman Kathryn Sanchez, Assemblyman Tri Ta, state Senators Tony Strickland and Suzette Valladares, future US Congressional candidate Erich Ching, member of the 2008 California Citizens Redistricting Commission Mike Ward, and residents Andrew Pandol and Roger Holland. 

The suit stated that three measures in the legislature—AB 604, ACA 8, and SB 280—"redraw the boundaries of California’s congressional districts, propose effectively transferring the power to do so from the Commission to the Legislature, and call for a statewide special election on November 4, 2025, for the purpose of approving that transfer of power."

The Republicans said that "Not only does Respondent’s redistricting gambit violate every one of these core constitutional restrictions, but they also rammed this complex scheme comprising hundreds of pages of data through the Legislature in just 4 days, in violation of the Constitution’s Article IV, § 8(a) requirement for 30 days’ public notice of new legislation."

Even if "the entire litany of unconstitutional actions of the Legislature to ram their scheme through the legislature and onto the ballot are set aside," the measure that would be presented to voters in November "violates the single-subject rule by illegally calling for voters to approve two separate questions on two separate subjects based on two different legal authorities and representing conflicting policy choices."

"Specifically, the measure calls for voters to approve both a provision calling for California to petition Congress to promote independent citizens commissions, which the state has the power to do based on the U.S. Constitution, as well as calling for voter approval of provisions to amend the California Constitution to strip redistricting power from California’s independent redistricting commission, void the maps the Commission created, and implement maps concocted in secret by unknown operatives." 

The complaint added, "Allowing this unconstitutional measure onto the ballot would impose needless costs and uncertainty on both election officials and the public. Counties must engage in substantial labor to prepare for and administer an election, including the time necessary to recalibrate voting systems, prepare polling places, re-educate voters, prepare and mail ballots, and collect, verify, and count ballots. (To say nothing of the hundreds of millions of private dollars that will be wasted on advocacy campaigns for and against this measure instead of being put to more worthy causes.)"

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state’s redistricting effort earlier in August, saying the ballot would be asking Californians to "provide a temporary pathway for congressional maps."

"We will affirm our commitment to the state independent redistricting after the 2030 census, but we're asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting in 2026, 2028, and 2030 for the congressional maps to respond to what's happening in Texas, to respond what Trump is trying to excite."