In response to Texas Republicans' unusual but legal mid-decade congressional redistricting effort, California Democrats, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, are attempting to ram through a partisan gerrymandering of their own, albeit in apparent violation of the state's constitution, statutes, and legislative rules.

A group of California Republicans urged the state's Supreme Court to block their Democratic colleagues in an emergency filing this week, but the left-leaning justices on Wednesday declined to do so, according to CBS News.

That means the Newsom-led Democrats can move forward with a rushed vote on Thursday on special redistricting legislation filed earlier this week, despite a constitutional requirement that all bills be published for a minimum of 30 days before any vote is conducted, to say nothing of the state's independent redistricting commission that is supposed to handle such matters instead of the legislature.

Emergency petition filed

Four California Republican lawmakers filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court on Monday, the same day that Democrats introduced their special redistricting bill, which called upon the court to intervene and temporarily halt further action on the new legislation, which is slated to be voted on as soon as Thursday.

The petition noted that, per the California Constitution's Article IV, Section 8, the legislature must wait at least 30 days before voting on a new bill, to allow lawmakers and the public ample time to review the matter.

To sidestep that obligation, it was further pointed out, Democrats deceptively gutted and replaced the contents of two old, unrelated bills filed earlier this year that hadn't yet been voted on.

Allowing that farce to proceed, the GOP lawmakers argued, would be a "comically absurd" interpretation of the constitutional requirement that "renders it meaningless."

Request for intervention rejected

Unfortunately for the Republican petitioners, their pleas fell on deaf ears at the California Supreme Court, which rejected the request without a ruling and only a two-sentence entry on the docket as an explanation for the decision.

"The petition for writ of mandate and application for stay are denied," the state's high court said. "Petitioners have failed to meet their burden of establishing a basis for relief at this time under California Constitution article IV, section 8."

That rejection allows the Democratic supermajority to hold a vote, perhaps as soon as Thursday, on a bill that Gov. Newsom must sign within days to beat a deadline to place the special redistricting proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot.

The proposal, if approved by the state's majority of Democratic voters, would allow the highly partisan legislature to bypass the state's nonpartisan independent redistricting commission and redraw the congressional maps in a way that is deliberately designed to flip at least five Republican-held seats to the Democrats.

"Not the end of this fight"

"Today's Supreme Court decision is not the end of this fight," the four California Republicans said in a statement, according to ABC News. "Although the Court denied our petition, it did not explain the reason for its ruling."

"This means Governor Newsom and the Democrats' plan to gut the voter-created Citizens Redistricting Commission, silence public input, and stick taxpayers with a $200+ million bill will proceed," they continued.

"We will continue to challenge this unconstitutional power grab in the courts and at the ballot box," the rejected GOP lawmakers added. "Californians deserve fair, transparent elections, not secret backroom deals to protect politicians."