The decision is likely to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, which recently cleared the way for Texas to use its Republican-drawn maps during the midterm elections, and could create a level-playing field for both parties in the election.
A federal court said California can use its new congressional map that favors Democrats during this year's midterm election, giving the party a key win and a pathway to neutralize anticipated Republican gains in the House due to new districts in Texas.
A divided three-judge panel on Wednesday rejected a bid by Donald Trump's administration and the California Republican Party to overturn the voter-approved redistricting plan on the grounds that it was racially gerrymandered. California leaders drew a new, temporary congressional map to favor Democrats in response to a Trump-initiated redistricting in Texas, intended to help Republicans try to keep their majority in the House.
The California ruling is likely to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, which recently cleared the way for Texas to use its Republican-drawn maps during the midterm elections. If the California map is similarly allowed, it would create a level-playing field as both parties jockey for control of Congress. If it is rejected, Republicans would have a significant advantage going into the election.
"Republicans' weak attempt to silence voters failed," California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. "California voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 50 - to respond to Trump's rigging in Texas - and that is exactly what this court concluded."
Representatives for the US Justice Department and the California Republican Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The decision follows a trial in mid-December, during which lawyers for the US Department of Justice and the California GOP argued that the new congressional districts were illegally designed to bolster the power of Hispanic voters and are therefore unconstitutional. Lawyers for California defended the redistricting plan as purely political and a necessary response to the Texas maps.
The case was heard by two Los Angeles-based district judges, Josephine Staton and Wesley Hsu, as well as Judge Kenneth K. Lee, who serves on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Staton was appointed by former President Barack Obama; Hsu by former President Joe Biden; and Lee by Trump. Lee cast the dissenting vote.
Writing for the majority, Staton said there was no evidence that the new districts were racially gerrymandered.
Unlike in Texas, the California redistricting plan had to be approved by voters during a special election in November. Proposition 50 won more than 64% of the statewide vote.
Legal experts predicted that the California maps would fare better than the Texas ones under judicial scrutiny, especially if the case is reviewed by the Supreme Court. In the justices' unsigned opinion lifting a lower-court ruling blocking the Texas maps, the majority said the court should not have gotten involved in the dispute so close to the deadline for candidates to file to run for office.
The rare, mid-decade redistricting effort in Texas kicked off a partisan fight across the country and prompted several states to consider redrawing their maps.
Outside of Texas, Republicans aim to pick up one more seat in Missouri, one in North Carolina and potentially two more in Ohio this year as a result of redistricting. Republicans could also gain seats in Florida, where lawmakers are expected to begin exploring the drawing of a new congressional map.
Other states could follow suit depending on a separate Voting Rights Act case before the Supreme Court over Louisiana's congressional map, which could sharply limit the use of the Voting Rights Act to create predominantly Black or Hispanic election districts. A ruling in favor of Louisiana's Republican leaders would eliminate one of the state's majority-Black - and heavily Democratic - congressional districts and raise questions about similar seats in other states.
The case is Tangipa v. Newsom, 2:25-cv-10616, US District Court, Central District of California (Los Angeles).