California Republicans today filed a second writ petition — Sanchez v. Weber — in the Supreme Court seeking to prevent the electorate from voting in November to temporarily redraw the state’s congressional districts.
The court denied the first petition last week, two days after it was filed, but before enactment of the legislation necessary to put the redistricting proposal on the ballot. The petition had asked for immediate action to stop the Legislature from acting. The court declined to stop the Legislature from voting, but seemed to leave open today’s second petition, apparently saying the first petition was premature.
Today’s petition asks the Supreme Court to keep off the November ballot ACA 8, the Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment for temporary redistricting. It requests a court decision — with or without a hearing — in two weeks, by September 8. I do not see in the petition why September 8 is a critical date. The only reference to that day on the California Secretary of State’s web page of key dates for the November special election is: “Translations of Ballot Label and Ballot Title and Summary Available for Public Display” “August 31–September 8, 2025.”
Today’s petition reprises the lone argument made in the first, that the Legislature acted too quickly on the redistricting bills, in violation of California Constitution article IV, section 8(a). But it also alleges ACA 8 violates other state constitutional provisions — the separate-vote requirement of article XVIII, section 1; and the Citizens Redistricting Commission provisions and the once-a-decade-redistricting limitations of article XXI. The petition doesn’t mention how these arguments might be affected by the ACA 8 provision that the changes it makes are “notwithstanding any other provision of [California’s] Constitution or existing law.”