Republican state legislators in California filed suit on Tuesday to block a mid-year redistricting plan meant to counter Texas’s effort to redraw congressional district lines.
The emergency petition argues that the process being used in the California assembly violates laws requiring a 30-day period between the introduction of legislation and voting on it.
“Instead of a months-long transparent and participatory process overseen by an independent citizens redistricting commission for such a sensitive matter, the public would be presented instead with an up or down vote on maps unilaterally prepared in secret by the Legislature,” states the filing on behalf of senators Tony Strickland and Suzette Martinez Valladares, assemblyman Tri Ta and assemblywoman Kathryn Sanchez.
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, announced his state’s redistricting plan last week in terms on social media mocking Donald Trump’s flamboyance, intent on using the voting power of the US’s most populous state to counteract Texas’s redrawn map, which would be expected to deliver a net gain of five congressional seats to Republicans in 2026.
Newsom praised the California effort on Monday, calling it a necessary response to Trump’s influence over redistricting in Texas and other Republican-led states.
“We are not going to sit idle while they command Texas and other states to rig the next election to keep power,” Newsom said, adding that the proposal gives Californians “a choice to fight back”.
To do so in time for a special election in November, the state assembly must pass the plan this year. As has been a common practice near the end of legislative terms, California lawmakers took an existing bill introduced earlier in the session and gutted it of its language, replacing it with legislation that overrides the state’s neutral redistricting commission to present maps to voters.
The Mandeep Dhillon law firm filing the suit was previously owned by Harmeet Dhillon, who is now assistant attorney general overseeing the US Department of Justice civil rights division. Dhillon was known for her efforts to sue California’s university system to overturn policies which barred controversial conservative speakers from appearing. She sold her firm to her brother Mandeep Singh Dhillon after Trump nominated her to take over civil rights enforcement in his administration.
The suit does not challenge “gut and amend” in principle, but rather asks the court “to enforce an external constitutional constraint against the Legislature to protect the people’s rights”.
Internal polling presented to lawmakers showed voters favored the measure 52% to 41%, with 7% undecided, according to the local television station KCRA.
Republicans in California condemned the proposal as an assault on the state’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission and said they plan to introduce legislation that advocates for creating similar map-drawing bodies in all 50 states.
“Governor Newsom, this is nothing more than a power grab,” Strickland said during a Monday news conference in Sacramento.
He warned the redistricting tit-for-tat sets a dangerous precedent that will not be easily undone. “The Golden Gate Bridge toll was supposed to be temporary,” he added. “You’re still paying the toll.”
The legislature could hold floor votes to send the measure to voters for approval as soon as Thursday, KCRA reported.
House Republicans currently hold a razor-thin three-seat majority in the US House and Trump has pushed to redraw district boundaries ahead of next year’s midterm elections, in which the president’s party typically loses seats. Republicans are also poised to redraw congressional districts in Ohio, Missouri and Florida, as well as potentially Indiana.
