Supreme Court denies attempt to stop SLO County’s redistricting

February 15, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The California Supreme Court denied an effort by a group of local opponents of redistricting  to overturn the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ vote to adopt the Patten map.

After a judge shot down an attempt to temporarily reverse the supervisors’ adoption of the Patten map, SLO County Citizens for Good Government and three SLO County residents went straight to the California Supreme Court to seek an injunction. The plaintiffs wanted the court to either revert back to the old boundary map, or select Map A, both of which were promoted by Democratic supervisors Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg during the redistricting process.

The plaintiffs filed the motion on Monday to stay the trial court ruling, which the high court justices then turned down on Tuesday, without asking for opposition from the county.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauy made her decision without prejudice, meaning her ruling was not based on the likelihood of the case to succeed or fail at trial. The chief justice found that based on the truncated and incomplete record, “neither the trial court nor this court could undertake a final adjudication of plaintiff’s motion for a temporary restraining order under such circumstances.”

Last week, Superior Court Judge Rita Federman rejected the bulk of the plaintiffs’ arguments, which included that the adopted map diminishes Latino voters, that cities are not communities of interest and that the new map illegally took away the right of some to vote in the 2022 election.

Judge Federman found the plaintiffs’ argument that the county should have looked at evidence that the adopted map favored or discriminated against a political party, accurate, though procedural.

The June 7 election will follow the new district boundaries. The lawsuit will continue with a case management conference scheduled in March.