The big question, assuming they raise enough money to qualify the referendum, is how they would sell a rejection of the lines to the voters.  Don’t be surprised by ads claiming that the lines are not generous enough to Latinos.

MALDEF, meanwhile, could go straight to the CA Supreme Court.

Republicans must be kicking themselves for backing the citizen redistricting commission.  I think the calculation failed at the level of the auditors’ office.  That office, which winnowed down the commissioners, did not choose sufficiently partisan Republicans to serve on the commission who could block any plans which could dilute Republican political power in the state.  See the complaint of the one Republican dissenter on the Commission: “This commission became the citizens’ smoke-filled room, where average citizen commissioners engaged in dinner-table deals and partisan gerrymandering — the very problems that this commission was supposed to prevent.”