California Republicans asked the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to stop Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to redraw the state’s congressional map.
The California Republican Party filed an emergency appeal to the nation’s highest court in a last-ditch bid to halt the alleged gerrymandering triggered by Newsom’s Proposition 50.
The redistricting effort could turn up to five GOP-held districts blue.
The court battle has big implications for the midterm elections, with Democrats favored to win back the House of Representatives due to frustration with the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.
Prediction markets and pollsters show Dems in a good position to capture the House, but an adverse decision in the Prop. 50 case could stymie those plans.
The ballot proposal was spun up in response to a similar redrawing effort in Texas, where the state’s Republican majority moved to rejigger its maps to give their party an edge in congressional races.
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Prop. 50 was championed by Newsom as a plan to cancel out Texas’s attempted gerrymandering. It passed handily in the November election last year.
The GOP filing asks Justice Elena Kagan, who is assigned to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, to issue an injunction to temporarily reinstate the current congressional map, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Republicans contested the maps drawn by Prop 50, arguing the new congressional lines would unfairly benefit Latino voters over other racial groups.
Kagan will either deny the emergency appeal, likely within days, or refer the matter to the full Supreme Court.
If referred to the Supreme Court, justices would likely issue a ruling on the GOP’s emergency motion well before California’s candidate filing deadline on March 6.
