When the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority approved Texas’ Republican-backed congressional map this month, Republican-appointed Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple.”
That might sound like an insult to both maps. But at a court that has effectively blessed partisan gerrymandering, it amounts to legal absolution.
Alito’s passing reference to Democrats’ effort in California looms over a GOP challenge to that state’s map this week. A three-judge panel is holding a hearing in litigation that seems destined for the high court, where the justices could soon be confronted with the question of whether they would similarly side with California or leave the partisan advantage to the GOP ahead of the 2026 midterms.
In the California litigation, lawyers for Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom are now in the position that Texas was in: fending off a claim that the state’s map is an illegal racial gerrymander, as opposed to pure politics. The Republican complaint against California was filed last month, prior to the Supreme Court’s Dec. 4 ruling in the Texas case.
But Newsom’s lawyers brought the high court’s action to the attention of the judges hearing the California suit, writing that it helps their defense on several fronts — including Alito’s concurring opinion, which, the state says, is enough on its own to reject the challenge. The Trump administration, which is arguing against the state, calls Democratic reliance on the Supreme Court’s Texas ruling “misplaced” and seeks to distinguish the California case from the high court’s handling of the Texas litigation.
So when the panel rules after the hearing and the case takes its next likely step toward the high court, one thing to look for is how the panel discusses the recent Texas case in the context of the California map. The panel ruling could come soon, with the hearing set to conclude Wednesday with oral arguments.
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