California Republican legislators and citizens filed a petition with the state Supreme Court on Monday to block Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s effort to redistrict the state.
On August 14, Newsom and fellow California Democrats announced plans to introduce a legislative package for a state constitutional amendment that would permit the legislature to redraw the boundaries of California’s congressional districts. They introduced the legislation on August 18, four days later.
The petition, filed by the Dhillon Law Group, states that the rushed move by Newsom broke the standards agreed upon by the state, which handed the redistricting process over to an independent commission. It’s asking the Supreme Court to step in on behalf of citizens to stop the rogue redistricting attempt, which was undertaken as a direct response to actions by Texas Republicans.
“The people of California enshrined in their constitution fundamental rules by which they would have the redistricting power undertaken in this state. The work of redistricting as well as the power that goes with it were intentionally taken away from the partisan California Legislature and given to an independent citizens redistricting commission; barring a court order, the inherent tumult of the redistricting process could only occur once per decade; to protect their rights the redistricting process would involve extensive public engagement and the people expressly prohibited partisan gerrymandering.”
Commenting on the effort by California Democrats in two Assembly bills and a Senate bill to redraw the boundaries of the state’s congressional districts, the petition noted that the effort violated the aforementioned restrictions and also was rammed through the legislature in four days, which violated the state constitution’s requirement for 30 days’ public notice of new legislation.
The petition also noted that the measure the Democrats would present to the voters “violates the single subject rule by illegally calling for voters to approve two separate questions on two separate subjects based on two different legal authorities and representing conflicting policy choices.”
Those questions would be proposing “petitioning Congress to institute independent citizens redistricting commissions nationwide to draw voting district maps” as well as proposing “discarding maps created by California’s independent citizen’s redistricting commission to implement legislation and maps developed in secret by unknow members of the legislature.”
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“Days ago, the California Legislature rushed through hundreds of pages of redistricting changes in just four days, an unconstitutional scheme that rips power away from the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission and hands it back to politicians,” Mike Columbo of the Dhillon Law Group stated. “The Constitution requires redistricting be done by the Commission with transparency and public participation, and only once per decade. They broke all of those rules, and that is why we’ve gone to the Supreme Court today.”
State Senator Tony Strickland, a Republican, called Newsom’s plan “a shining example of why the people took back redistricting in the first place,” adding, “We created the Citizens Commission to stop backroom deals. Instead, Sacramento is forcing Californians into a predetermined election with no transparency, no hearings, and no public input. That’s not democracy — that’s authoritarianism, and I’ll fight it every step of the way.”
Republican Assemblyman Tri Ta declared: “I fled a country that never had free elections to come here for freedom. What happened last week on the Assembly floor was outrageous and a complete violation of the California Constitution. And now, on top of that, we are being forced to spend more than $200 million on a special election when Californians are asking for relief on affordability, crime, and homelessness.”
The petition requests that the Court act no later than September 8.
The Dhillon Law Group was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice. She left the firm earlier this year to avoid conflicts of interest following her appointment.
