California Supreme Court won’t hear appeal to stop SLO County redistricting map
A last-ditch effort to stop San Luis Obispo County from using a contentious redistricting map in the upcoming June election is dead in the water.
SLO County Citizens for Good Government filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court on Friday asking for the court to hear its appeal of a judge’s decision allowing the recently adopted Patten redistricting map.
On Tuesday the state Supreme Court denied the appeal without prejudice, essentially saying it would not hear the case, but also not commenting on the merits of the appeal, according to court documents provided to The Tribune.
SLO County Citizens is fighting against the redistricting map, which the Board of Supervisors adopted in December.
In January, the group filed a lawsuit against the county claiming the map violated the California Fair Maps Act because it was drawn to increase Republicans’ electoral advantage and breaks up communities of interest.
Last week, San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Rita Federman denied an injunction to stop the map from being used in the June 7 supervisor primary elections in Districts 2 and 4, saying halting the map at that time, and then potentially having the ruling overturned later on, would be “detrimental to the democratic process.”
The Supreme Court petition was a last-chance — but ultimately unsuccessful — attempt to block the map, and the new boundaries it set up, from being used during the primaries.
“We felt that was the most strategic route and the most economically efficient route, as well, and just the responsible thing to do for our county,” Quinn Brady, a spokeswoman for the group, told The Tribune on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court decision means the Patten map will almost definitely be used in the June 7 election, Brady said.
“We don’t take that lightly,” Brady said. “We know that thousands of SLO County citizens will have their votes disrupted in the 2022 election. And we are going to continue working tirelessly to ensure that there’s fair and equitable democracy moving forward.”
The group also filed an appeal with the state appellate court to stop the map before the primaries, but has not yet received a decision there.
It is currently awaiting a court hearing in front of Federman to try to prevent the map from being used in the future.
A scheduling hearing is expected sometime in March.
“We are right now putting all of our efforts into preparing a strong, unwavering case to bring before Judge Federman once those dates are set for the coming months,” Brady said. “We still feel we have a very strong lawsuit and remain confident that we will see success in the coming months.”
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