California Republican party asks state supreme court to block voter-approved redistricting maps

The California Republican party has asked the state supreme court to block a redistricting measure voters approved in November that would flip up to five House seats in Democrats’ favor.

In an emergency filing, the party asked Justice Elena Kagan, who is assigned to the ninth circuit, to issue an injunction before 9 February, the beginning of California’s candidate filing period for the June 2026 primaries.

The new map was endorsed by voters as a counterweight to a similar redistricting effort in Texas aimed at boosting Republicans. A federal court on 14 January rejected the argument by the challengers that California illegally used race in redrawing the boundaries of the congressional districts.

“California cannot create districts by race, and the state should not be allowed to lock in districts that break federal law,” said Corrin Rankin, the California Republican party chairwoman. “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.”

Republicans currently hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Ceding control of either the House or Senate to the Democrats in the November 2026 elections would endanger Trump’s legislative agenda and open the door to Democratic-led congressional investigations targeting the president.

The new Texas map could flip as many as five currently Democratic-held House seats to Republicans. Democratic-governed California reacted to the Texas redistricting move by initiating its own effort that could flip five Republican-held districts in the state to Democrats. California voters last November approved a ballot measure to allow lawmakers to adopt the new map.

The California Republican party and other plaintiffs, joined by Trump’s administration, sued in Los Angeles federal court to block the new map, claiming it illegally used “race as a predominant factor” to favor Latino voters, in violation of the US constitution’s 14th amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law, 15th amendment prohibition on racial discrimination in voting and the federal Voting Rights Act.

The federal court on 14 January refused to block the map.

“Because we find that the evidence of any racial motivation driving redistricting is exceptionally weak, while the evidence of partisan motivations is overwhelming, challengers are not entitled to preliminary relief on any of their claims,” the court said in a 2-1 decision.

“Our conclusion probably seems obvious to anyone who followed the news in the summer and fall of 2025,” the ruling stated.

In their filing on Tuesday, the challengers to California’s map said that state officials sought to “shore up Latino support for the Democratic party” through the “pernicious and unconstitutional use of race”.

A California-based firm, the Dhillon Law Group, filed the emergency application on behalf of the California Republican party. The firm was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, now the US assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, a former vice-chair of the California Republican party.

Associated Press contributed reporting