The Department of Justice is suing California over its embrace of Proposition 50, which will redraw congressional district lines.
The measure was approved by voters in last week’s election, and would allow California to add five Democratic seats in Congress as part of the battle for control of the House in the 2026 midterm elections.
The Justice Department said Proposition 50 creates racially gerrymandered districts, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The release said that the districts were drawn with racial considerations being foremost to appease Hispanic voters.
“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
“The race-based gerrymandered maps passed by the California legislature are unlawful and unconstitutional,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California added.
“The U.S. Department of Justice is moving swiftly to prevent these illegal maps from tainting our upcoming elections. California is free to draw congressional maps, but they may not be drawn based on race,” he continued.
“Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Jesus Osete remarked.
The lawsuit said what California did is illegal.
Should the new California map be struck down?
“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50 — the recent ballot initiative that junked California’s pre-existing electoral map in favor of a rush-job rejiggering of California’s congressional district lines,” the lawsuit said.
“In the press, California’s legislators and governor sold a plan to promote the interests of Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. But amongst themselves and on the debate floor, the focus was not partisanship, but race,” the lawsuit added.
“Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander.”
The Department of Justice will join a lawsuit filed against the state by California Republicans.
That lawsuit argues that “the California Legislature violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution when it drew new congressional district lines based on race, specifically to favor Hispanic voters, without cause or evidence to justify it.”
“When a state unlawfully engages in racial gerrymandering, it also violates the Fifteenth Amendment, which provides that the right of citizens to vote cannot be denied or abridged on account of race or color,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit noted that the state made no secret that the new districts “are specifically designed to favor one race or ethnicity of voters.”
The lawsuit said race-based redistricting is allowable when it can be proven that members of a certain race or ethnicity cannot elect members of that race or ethnicity, which is not the case in California.
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