California can use new congressional maps in November, supreme court rules

California can use a new congressional map that was approved by voters in November, the Supreme Court has ruled, handing Democrats a major victory in their effort to neutralize Donald Trump’s push to protect Republicans’ fragile House majority in this year’s midterm elections.In December, the court said Texas could use its redrawn congressional map in 2026, designed to carve out as many as five Republican-friendly congressional districts, rejecting a lower-court ruling that found it had been racially gerrymandered.In a brief, unsigned order released on Wednesday with no justices dissenting, the Supreme Court denied an emergency request by California Republicans to block the new maps from taking effect. The California Republican Party, joined by the Trump administration, had argued that the state’s new congressional map had illegally used race as a factor in drawing district lines. A lower court disagreed.“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more congressional seats in Texas. He started this redistricting war,” said California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who championed the redistricting ballot initiative, in a post on social media. “He lost, and he’ll lose again in November.”In November, California voters overwhelmingly approved Newsom’s redistricting ballot initiative, known as Proposition 50, which was presented as a chance for the blue state to check Trump’s power. Unlike Texas, and other states where a vote by the state legislature authorized new district lines, California’s constitution required voter approval to override the maps drawn by its independent redistricting commission.States typically undertake redistricting once every 10 years, following the decennial US census. But last year, Trump set off an extraordinary redistricting tit-for-tat when he pressured the Republican-controlled Texas legislature to redraw its congressional maps ahead of the November midterms.The move prompted a retaliatory response from California as the effort spread to several other states, including Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina. Utah Republicans are suing over new maps imposed by a court order that could help Democrats win a Salt Lake City-area district. The Democratic-controlled Maryland state legislature is divided over a plan to redraw the state’s maps in the party’s favor.In the Supreme Court’s December ruling in the Texas case, the conservative majority said the mid-cycle redistricting appeared to have been done for political reasons.“With an eye on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, several States have in recent months redrawn their congressional districts in ways that are predicted to favor the state’s dominant political party,” the court said. “Texas adopted the first new map, then California responded with its own map for the stated purpose of counteracting what Texas had done.”In a concurring opinion, the conservative justice Samuel Alito, foreshadowed Wednesday’s ruling, writing that the “impetus” for adopting new congressional lines in both Texas and California was “partisan advantage pure and simple”.Democrats’ aggressive effort to offset Republicans’ redistricting gains, paired with Trump’s sagging approval ratings, widespread disenchantment with the economy and historical trends that favor the out-of-power party, has put them in a strong position to retake the House in November. Democrats need to flip only a handful of Republican-held congressional seats to win a majority in the House, though they face a much more challenging path in the Senate.Taking control of one or both chambers would allow Democrats to launch investigations – and possibly impeachment inquiries – into the Trump administration. With a majority in either chamber, Democrats could also frustrate much of the president’s legislative agenda in the second half of his presidency.