Republican Rep. John Duarte faces Democrat Adam Gray in the Modesto-based 13th District in California.
Sacramento, California – Republican lawmakers in California filed an emergency lawsuit Monday asking the State Supreme Court to block Democrats from moving forward with a redistricting plan that could reshape the state’s congressional map and potentially shift control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The legal challenge is the latest turn in a growing national fight over mid-decade redistricting — a fight that began when President Donald Trump pushed Texas Republicans earlier this summer to redraw their congressional boundaries in a way that could hand the GOP five additional House seats. In response, Democrats in California unveiled their own package of bills Monday designed to reconfigure districts in their favor. The plan would also target five seats, a counterweight to the Texas effort.
California Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, say they intend to pass the measures Thursday and set a special election for November 4. But Republicans argue the process violates the state’s Constitution. Their petition contends that the Legislature must wait at least 30 days before voting on new legislation so the public can review it. They also say the rushed timeline would affect the representation of Asian American and Hispanic communities.
California’s Constitution already places unusual guardrails on redistricting, requiring an independent commission to draw the state’s maps and mandating voter approval for any changes. That system was meant to prevent partisan gerrymandering. But Democrats insist that Trump’s move in Texas has forced them into an emergency response. “Republicans are filing a deeply unserious (and truly laughable) lawsuit to stop Americans from voting?” Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said in a statement. “We’re neither surprised, nor worried.”
The lawsuit, filed by four Republican legislators, is expected to be only the first. The National Republican Congressional Committee has already signaled it will mount its own legal challenge against the Democratic plan.
At the heart of the dispute is a procedural question: when does the constitutional 30-day review clock start ticking? Republicans argue that it begins as soon as a bill is drafted and assigned a number. Democrats maintain that the window doesn’t start until the bill is fully fleshed out, which they say justifies this week’s schedule. Meanwhile, lawmakers must also navigate a separate requirement that the final text of any bill be published at least 72 hours before a floor vote.
For decades, California legislators have made use of “gut and amend,” a practice of rewriting bills in the final weeks of the session to push through major changes at the last minute. The Republican lawsuit frames the Democrats’ redistricting maneuver as a particularly high-stakes version of that practice — one that could decide not just local representation, but control of Congress itself.
