{"id":147900,"date":"2026-01-24T14:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147900\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T14:41:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:41:26","slug":"trump-lawyers-urge-supreme-court-to-block-californias-new-election-map-while-upholding-texas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147900\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump lawyers urge Supreme Court to block California’s new election map while upholding Texas’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Trump administration lawyers have joined California Republicans in urging the Supreme Court to block California\u2019s new election map<\/a> on the grounds that one district in the San Joaquin Valley was drawn to favor Latinos.<\/p>\n

Two months ago, Trump\u2019s lawyers called on the court to uphold a new Republican-friendly election map in Texas, arguing that it was a partisan gerrymander, not one driven by race.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiffs bringing a racial-gerrymander claim have the heavy burden to show that race was the predominant factor motivating\u201d how the map was drawn, Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer said then. <\/p>\n

The Supreme Court agreed by a 6-3 vote<\/a> and lifted a judges\u2019 order that had blocked the Texas map, which was drawn to win five more House seats for Republicans. <\/p>\n

Voting rights advocates had sued, noting Gov. Greg Abbott said the goal was to eliminate four \u201ccoalition districts,\u201d which had a combined majority of Black and Latino voters and elected Democrats.<\/p>\n

In a brief opinion, the justices said they presume state officials acted in \u201cgood faith\u201d in drawing the maps of congressional districts. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is indisputable that impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple<\/a>,\u201d wrote Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. <\/p>\n

The justices also said it was too late in the election-year calendar for reshuffling the districts again. <\/p>\n

Undeterred, Trump\u2019s lawyers now stake out the near opposite view to support the GOP\u2019s attack on the California map, which was upheld by the voters in November. <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s recent redistricting is tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,\u201d Sauer wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n

He pointed to past comments from Paul Mitchell, the designated map maker<\/a>, who said he hoped the Latino districts in the Central Valley could be \u201cbolstered in order to make them most effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s lawyer said District 13 in Merced County has an odd-looking \u201cnorthern plume\u201d that brings in Democratic voters near Stockton. <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s motivation in adopting the Prop. 50 map as a whole was undoubtedly to counteract Texas\u2019s political gerrymander,\u201d Sauer said. \u201cBut that overarching political goal is not a license for district-level racial gerrymandering.\u201d<\/p>\n

He advised the justices to declare the new California map unconstitutional and require the state to return to the former map.
The political impact of such a ruling is obvious. It would likely cost Democrats five seats in the House of Representatives. <\/p>\n

Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees appeals from the West Coast, asked for a response from California by Thursday. That would suggest the justices may act on the GOP\u2019s appeal in the first week of February. <\/p>\n

Election law experts have been skeptical of the Republican arguments in the California case. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Republicans are likely to prevail here,\u201d UCLA law professor Rick Hasen wrote on his Election Law Blog. <\/a> <\/p>\n

He said the legal challenge \u201ccomes too late,\u201d the proposed remedy is too broad, and it ignores the fact that the California\u2019s voters were focused on partisanship, not race. It\u2019s their intent that counts, he said. <\/p>\n

Then, Hasen added, there\u2019s \u201cthe optics. It would be a terrible look for the Court … to allow Texas\u2019s Republican gerrymander to go forward but stop California\u2019s, especially if it\u2019s a party line vote. That might be too much even for this Court.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a key legal difference in how the appeal arrived at the court. <\/p>\n

In Texas, a three-judge panel heard the evidence, wrote a 160-page opinion and ruled against the state in a 2-1 decision. <\/p>\n

In the California case, by contrast, a three-judge panel heard the evidence and rejected the racial gerrymandering claim in a 2-1 decision. <\/p>\n

In December, Kagan dissented in the Texas case and argued the court should be reluctant to overturn the factual findings of the three judges who heard the case. <\/p>\n

The two judges in the majority in the California case said they did not see evidence of a racial gerrymander.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find that the evidence of any racial motivation driving redistricting is exceptionally weak, while the evidence of partisan motivations is overwhelming,\u201d said U.S. District Judges Josephine Staton and Wesley Hsu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Trump administration lawyers have joined California Republicans in urging the Supreme Court to block California\u2019s new election…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57680,7,9,8,6198,4579,4744,719,1429,6780,46944,2211,2214,564,1519,73458,1522],"class_list":["post-147900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-appeal","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-republicans","tag-district","tag-evidence","tag-justice","tag-lawyer","tag-map","tag-new-election-map","tag-race","tag-supreme-court","tag-texas","tag-trump","tag-trump-lawyer","tag-voter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}