Court Rejects GOP, DOJ Challenge, Clearing Way for Democrats to Target Five New Seats
SACRAMENTO, Calif. | A federal appeals panel on Wednesday cleared the way for California Democrats to use the state’s newly approved congressional map in the 2026 midterm elections, rejecting claims that the redistricting plan amounted to unlawful racial gerrymandering and delivering a significant legal victory for Democrats in the nation’s largest state.
In a 2–1 ruling, the judges denied a request from the California Republican Party and the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump to block the map approved by voters last November. The plan, adopted after a summer special election, was designed to create up to five additional Democratic-leaning congressional districts.
Writing for the majority, Judge Josephine Staton, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, concluded that challengers failed to meet the high bar required to halt the map before it is used in an election. Judge Wesley Hsu, appointed by President Joe Biden, joined the opinion. Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee, dissented.
“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,” Staton wrote, adding that the court’s conclusion “probably seems obvious to anyone who followed the news in the summer and fall of 2025.”
