Gov. Newsom’s office says that it has yet to be served with a copy of the lawsuit, but vowed to fight any filing in court.
California Republicans have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the newly-drawn House districts approved by state voters earlier this week.
According to PBS, Proposition 50, backed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats before the midterm elections next November. The lawsuit, though, says that map-makers broke the law by considering factors such as race, with some districts allegedly redrawn to favor Hispanic voters.
Filed by attorneys from The Dhillon Law Group, the lawsuit asks the court to prevent the newly-approved maps from being used in the 2026 midterm election.
“The map is designed to favor one race of California voters over others,” said Dhillon Law Group attorney Mike Columbo. “This violates the 14th Amendment, guarantee of equal protection under the law, and the right under the 15th Amendment.”
The plaintiffs identified in the company include a state Republican legislator and at least 18 other voters.
Gov. Newsom’s office says that it has yet to be served with a copy of the lawsuit, but vowed to fight any filing in court.
“We haven’t received the lawsuit, but if it’s from the California Republican Party and Harmeet Dhillon’s law firm, it’s going to fail,” Newsom’s office wrote in a statement published to Twitter.
Columbo, though, says that litigating the case will show that race was used as an inappropriately and unlawfully predominant factor in drawing the new maps, even though Democrats said their only intent was to flip seats.
“There was a lot of rhetoric and maybe even an effect, but within that, we have clear statements that establish that there was racial gerrymandering going on,” Columbo said at a Wednesday news conference.
Speaking to The New York Times, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard, said he thinks it’s unlikely that the courts will act on the case in time to change the course of California’s primary election in June 2026.
“A big procedural problem for this lawsuit is that legislatures and elected officials are allowed to make late changes to district lines, but the Supreme Court has been really stringent in saying that courts can’t do anything close to an election,” he told the New York Times.
Sources
Republicans file lawsuit to block new congressional map approved by California voters
Republicans Swiftly File Lawsuit in Bid to Block California’s New House Maps
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