Santa Monica Voting Rights Lawsuit Dismissed by Judge Following U.S. Supreme Court's Callais Decision
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has dismissed a decade-long voting rights lawsuit against the city of Santa Monica. The lawsuit, filed in 2016 by the Pico Neighborhood Association and Maria Loya, challenged the city's at-large election system, alleging it diluted the voting power of Latino residents. Judge Daniel M. Crowley granted Santa Monica's motion for judgment on the pleadings, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's April 2026 decision in *Louisiana v. Callais*. This landmark ruling established that election-law challenges seeking race-conscious remedies under the 14th Amendment require a 'strong inference that intentional discrimination occurred' in the adoption or maintenance of the challenged electoral system. Attorneys for Santa Monica, led by Kahn A. Scolnick of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, argued that federal equal-protection guarantees supersede state voting statutes and directly apply to the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 (CVRA). They contended that the plaintiffs could not meet the heig...
