California Republicans are filing their second lawsuit against Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s redistricting push, asking California’s highest court to grant “extraordinary relief” by directing Secretary of State Shirley Weber to refrain from putting California Democrats’ constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall.
The lawsuit, first obtained by National Review, challenges both the matter and means by which Golden State Democrats are asking voters to temporarily strip power from the state’s independent redistricting commission as part of a broader effort to neutralize Texas Republicans’ mid-decade gerrymander. And it comes after the California Supreme Court rejected last week an earlier effort by California Republicans to halt Newsom’s redistricting effort.
“Allowing this unconstitutional measure onto the ballot would impose needless costs and uncertainty on both election officials and the public,” write the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit, which include multiple California state legislators.
“Counties must engage in substantial labor to prepare for and administer an election, including the time necessary to recalibrate voting systems, prepare polling places, re-educate voters, prepare and mail ballots, and collect, verify, and count ballots,” the lawsuit continues. “(To say nothing of the hundreds of millions of private dollars that will be wasted on advocacy campaigns for and against this measure instead of being put to more worthy causes.)”
Pressed by National Review on Newsom’s redistricting plan earlier Monday, Trump said he plans to sue California through the Department of Justice.
“Well I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon and I think we’re going to be very successful in it. We’re going to be filing it through the Department of Justice. That’s going to happen,” Trump said, declining to elaborate.
Last week, the state GOP convened a private Zoom meeting with hundreds of Republican delegates and activists in the state explaining how the party plans to fight back against Newsom’s redistricting effort through social media, grassroots organizing, and the courts.
GOP legislators and operatives have spent recent days arguing that the constitutional amendment is a backroom deal that unfairly strips power away from an independent redistricting commission that California voters approved more than a decade ago.
“This is a nonpartisan issue. This is an issue about good governance in California,” California GOP Chairwoman Corrin Rankin said during a Monday afternoon press conference announcing the new lawsuit. “Californians want to see more transparency, not less.”
This story has been updated.