California Supreme Court Rules Against the Proposed 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission Map Deadline

SACRAMENTO—The California Supreme Court Sept. 22, ruled on the 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission’s or Commission petition to clarify and/or modify the writ of mandate issued by the Court on July 17, 2020 (Legislature of CA v Alex Padilla S262530)—when it ruled that the Commission should have until December 15, 2021 to submit its maps to the California Secretary of State due to the delay in release of census results. If census results were received after July 31, 2021, the Commission’s deadline would be adjusted accordingly to compensate for the additional federal delay.

Commission Chair Neal Fornaciari said while disappointed with the ruling, the Commission is committed to ensuring continued public participation in the process and to posting the first set of draft district maps by the court mandated date of Nov. 15, 2021 and to delivering the final district maps to the Secretary of State by the court mandated date of Dec. 27, 2021.

The State of California received local level data from the U.S. Census Bureau Aug. 12, 2021. These data required further preparation by the statewide database to allow for the state’s incarcerated population to be counted with the communities of their last known residence and reformat the data for use by the Commission. The Statewide Database published official census results on Sept. 20, 2021. 

These data are available at: https://statewidedatabase.org/redistricting2021/pl94-legacy.html.