The United States Supreme Court voted Wednesday to allow the State of California to use its new voter-approved congressional map in this year’s elections, a move that is expected to be favorable toward Democratic candidates in five districts.
As is common with cases on the Court’s emergency docket, no explanation as to the Justices’ reasoning was provided in the brief order. No members of the Court dissented from the decision.
In December, the Court issued a similar ruling in a case out of Texas, allowing the state to use an updated congressional map expected to be favorable toward Republican candidates in five districts for the 2026 elections.
As a result of Wednesday’s ruling, five seats currently held by Republicans in California are expected to flip Democratic later this year. Similarly in Texas, five Democratic seats are predicted to flip Republican.
California’s redistricting push came as a response to Texas’ own efforts, as Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) promised at the time to take steps to “nullify what happens in Texas,” calling it a “power grab” by President Donald Trump (R).
Changing California’s congressional maps required voter approval, however, as they would be overriding those which were created by the state’s independent redistricting commission. Residents green lit the move in November with 64 percent support.
Generally speaking, congressional maps are only updated once every ten years in accordance with the latest census results.
Members of California’s Republican Party and state GOP officials, alongside the Trump Administration, sued California over their recently redrawn map, alleging the new boundaries were racially gerrymandered.
Similar allegations were levied against Texas’ new maps. In both cases, the state governments have argued that their updated boundaries were based solely on politics.
Last month, a lower court declined to block California’s map from taking effect, agreeing that the lines were drawn on a strictly partisan basis.
“None of the stray statements invoked by plaintiffs … [reveal] any race-based motive, let alone a racial motivation that predominates over all others,” lawyers for California wrote to the Supreme Court.
Attorneys representing California Republicans, however, argued to the Court that the state “harbored another purpose as well: maximizing Latino voting strength to shore up Latino support for the Democratic Party,” calling the ballot measure a “pernicious and unconstitutional use of race.”
Gov. Newsom responded to the Supreme Court’s order Wednesday in a post on X.
“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more Congressional seats in Texas,” Newsom said. “He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November.”
According to the Associated Press, the California Republican Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the media regarding the Court’s decision.
The Supreme Court’s order comes just days before candidates can begin filing to run for office in California.
With both California’s and Texas’ maps in effect for the upcoming 2026 election cycle, their respective impacts on overall the balance of power in Congress will effectively cancel each other out.
