California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission on Friday filed a motion to further extend the constitutional and statutory deadlines to release for public comment and to then certify and approve Congressional, state legislative, and Board of Equalization district maps for the 2022 election.
Noting that “the usual order of redistricting operations has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the court 13 months ago used an expedited writ procedure to extend the deadlines by four months. (Legislature v. Padilla (2020) 9 Cal.5th 867.) It also allowed that the deadlines could be “further extended by the length of any additional delay in release of the federal census data” needed to produce new district maps. There has been additional delay, but, the motion states, “the Census Bureau’s decision to transmit the census data to the states in two different formats on two different dates has created an ambiguity in how the length of this ‘additional federal delay’ should be interpreted and calculated.”
The merits of the Commission’s motion aside, there might be a procedural problem with the request.
The Commission filed its motion in last year’s writ proceeding and it asks for three different modifications of the court’s writ of mandate. Yet, the court made its decision issuing the writ final on filing, and a decision can’t be modified after its finality (rules 8.264(c)(1), 8.532(c)). Thus, it’s possible the Commission should have filed a new writ petition instead. But it’s also possible the court could treat the motion as a new writ petition.
Related:
Supreme Court orders redistricting delay
Supreme Court appears ready to quickly order redistricting delay
Legislature asks Supreme Court to delay redistricting
[August 24 update: So far, the court is treating the motion as a continuation of the earlier writ proceeding. In that proceeding, it yesterday asked the Legislature and the Secretary of State to respond to the motion by September 7.]