U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Huntington Beach’s housing appeal

The city of Huntington Beach appears to have run out of avenues to challenge state housing mandates.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the city’s appeal of a lower court decision that sided with the state of California.

Back in March 2023, when current state Atty. Gen. candidate Michael Gates was still Huntington Beach’s city attorney, the city filed a federal lawsuit against the state. The suit argued that housing mandates — the city is required to zone for 13,368 new units in the current Regional Housing Needs Assessment cycle — violated the city’s 1st and 14th Amendment protections, particularly as a charter city.

But a lower court and three-judge federal appeals panel both disagreed. In April 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied the city’s petition for a rehearing “en banc,” meaning by the entire membership of the appellate court.

After Monday’s news, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said there is “no doubt” that the city must comply with state housing laws.

“After years of meritless resistance that has wasted taxpayer dollars, Huntington Beach can no longer claim that the U.S. Constitution is on its side,” Bonta said in a statement. “It is not. We look forward to holding the city fully accountable in state court, where we recently secured a decision that requires it to remedy its violations and significantly restricts the city’s local control until it does so.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the city’s lawsuit an “embarrassing approach,” and said the officials who pursued it ought to be ashamed of themselves.

“Huntington Beach deserves better,” Newsom said in a statement. “What a waste of taxpayers’ dollars that could have gone to much-needed housing for their community.”

As Bonta referenced, last December the state also secured a favorable decision in its own lawsuit against the city of Huntington Beach. San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal gave the city 120 days to adopt a compliant housing element, restricting the city’s zoning authority until it does so. The state Supreme Court refused Huntington Beach’s request to review the case.

Huntington Beach Mayor Casey McKeon said in a statement Monday that while the U.S. Supreme Court deciding not to take the city’s federal case was disappointing, it wasn’t surprising, noting that the court only takes about one percent of the cases brought before it.

“We felt our legal argument that the Ninth District Court of Appeals’ claims of ‘lack of standing’ for cities to sue their respective states in federal court needed to be adjudicated, as a lion’s share of the circuits allow their cities to sue their respective states in federal court on certain issues,” McKeon said. “There should be consistent, legal standing across the entire country.

“The voters of Huntington Beach elected us to defend our local control over municipal affairs, especially housing, and that’s what we will continue to do relentlessly. Even though this path has ended, other paths will always exist for us to continue to rigorously fight to defend the Huntington Beach residents’ local control.”

Under Bacal’s order, Huntington Beach would have until mid-April to update its housing plan. The current council has yet to have any open session discussions related to doing so.