Acting with unusual speed and using an exceptional procedure in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court today issued an opinion extending by four months constitutional and statutory deadlines for the state Citizens Redistricting Commission to submit Congressional, state legislative, and Board of Equalization district maps for the 2022 election.
The extension is necessary, the court said, because “the usual order of redistricting operations has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The pandemic has caused a likely delay in producing the federal Census data on which the maps are based. The court explained that redrawing district lines based on the data “ensure[s] compliance with the constitutional one-person, one-vote rule.”