A three-judge panel ruled that Republicans had not made a compelling argument for enjoining California from implementing its redrawn congressional maps.
A three-judge panel on a federal district court on Wednesday rejected a Republican bid to overturn California’s redistricted maps, upholding the results of the Proposition 50 referendum.
In a 2–1 decision, the panel in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that California’s altered maps were lawful, ruling that Republicans’ claims of racial gerrymandering motives in the redistricting did not align with the facts.
“We find that Challengers have failed to show that racial gerrymandering occurred, and we conclude that there is no basis for issuing a preliminary injunction,” the court wrote in its decision.
Republicans had argued that Proposition 50, which redrew California’s congressional maps to more heavily favor Democrats, constituted illegal racial gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act.
In the introduction to their opinion, the judges acknowledged that “everyone agrees” that the new California map is “likely to flip five congressional seats from Republicans to Democrats.”
Republicans had asked the court to ban the implementation of the maps in the 2026 midterm elections, arguing that the “predominant reason for its adoption was not politics but rather unconstitutional and unlawful racial gerrymandering.”
The panel said that the decision came after sitting through briefings from all parties, three days of evidentiary hearings—including more than 500 exhibits—and hearing witness testimony from nine people, including six experts. The panel added that this decision “probably seems obvious” to those who had followed reporting on the issue.
The judges specifically noted that California’s move was reactive to similar moves undertaken in Texas that were backed by President Donald Trump.
“In the summer of 2025, the Trump administration began pressuring Texas to redistrict for the purpose of picking up five more Republican seats in Congress. The Texas Legislature obliged,” the decision reads.
It stated that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to redistrict California’s map was a constrained and lawful response to Texas’s actions.
By Joseph Lord
