Lawmakers react to U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Prop. 50

By Madeline Shannon
The Center Square

California lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are responding to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to not hear an appeal challenging the state’s contentious Proposition 50 election.

Republicans challenged the congressional redistricting measure favoring Democrats in a lawsuit filed late last year.

“This is just a denial of the emergency injunction, and I really just thank the court for providing clarity,” Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, who brought the lawsuit, told The Center Square.

Part of Tangipa’s argument included that racial gerrymandering was at play in how the Prop. 50 election maps were drawn. He said he still believes racial gerrymandering was a factor.

“This doesn’t mean there was or wasn’t racial gerrymandering. It just means they didn’t see that they needed to necessarily act right now, and the lower courts need to rule on the case itself,” Tangipa said about the Supreme Court ruling.

The Prop. 50 special election, which passed in November with nearly 65% of the vote, has faced multiple legal challenges. A federal district court in Los Angeles heard the case, deciding to uphold the proposition. Tangipa and other California Republicans then filed an appeal they hoped would be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prop. 50 was initially a response to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting effort, which gave Republicans the opportunity to pick up five more seats in Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections. California’s Prop. 50 election was meant to give Democrats the chance to pick up five new seats themselves in the mid-terms.

“It’s an amazing day for California and this country that the Supreme Court struck down a meritless lawsuit,” Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz and chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, told The Center Square. “The voters of California have spoken, but California will stand up to the intimidation, the bullying and the inhumanity of the Trump administration.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a brief statement on Wednesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court declining to hear the appeal.

“Donald Trump said he was ‘entitled’ to five more Congressional seats in Texas,” Newsom said Wednesday. “He started this redistricting war. He lost, and he’ll lose again in November.”

A lawmaker who sits on an election committee responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday.

“This is a huge win for California, for California voters and democracy,” Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco and chair of the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee, told The Center Square on Wednesday. “We certainly did not want to have to go down the mid-decade redistricting route, but President Trump and Texas forced our hand.”

The U.S. Department of Justice, which was among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Prop. 50, did not respond to The Center Square on Wednesday.