The Supreme Court just gave Democrats in California something to smile about. In an unsigned order Wednesday, the justices rejected an emergency bid from the California Republican Party and the Trump administration to stop the state from using a new congressional map in this year's midterms. The ruling, which came without a public vote breakdown or explanation, means the Democrat-friendly lines will stay in place for November, the New York Times reports.
Republicans argued the redistricting violated the Constitution by using race as a factor when drawing the new lines. A divided three-judge federal panel in Los Angeles disagreed, with District Judge Josephine Staton writing that the evidence showed the map "was exactly what it was billed as: a political gerrymander designed to flip five Republican-held seats to the Democrats." That kind of motivation is still allowed under current Supreme Court precedent, which bars racial gerrymandering but leaves partisan mapmaking largely to politicians.
The California fight is part of a broader, bare-knuckle redistricting season. After President Trump urged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year to redraw that state's map to lock in more Republican seats, Democrats in California mounted their own counteroffensive. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new lines into law and sent them to the voters, who backed the plan in November.
When the Supreme Court let Texas use its GOP-tilted map in December, Justice Samuel Alito noted in a concurring opinion that both Texas and California were openly seeking "partisan advantage pure and simple"—a strategy the court, at least for now, is allowing to proceed. NPR reports that legal fights over redistricting are still playing out in other states, including New York, Virginia, and Utah.
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