“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” said Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The Trump administration has joined a lawsuit filed by California Republicans against the state, claiming that a recently-approved redistricting initiative is a “brazen power grab” that “mocks the democratic process.”
According to The Guardian, the lawsuit was filed on Thursday in a California-based federal court. In court documents, the U.S. Department of Justice accuses the state of redistricting its electoral map for political purposes, potentially to the detriment of voters nationwide.
“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has not denied that the redistricting initiative is politically motivated. The proposal was introduced shortly after President Donald Trump demanded that conservative lawmakers throughout the country find ways to ensure that the Republican Party withstands next year’s midterm election. Over the summer, for instance, Texas was one of several states that answered Trump’s call to gerrymander, redrawing its own map to give conservative candidates for the U.S. House of Representative an advantage in districts currently held by Democrats.
California’s redistricting bid has been posited as retaliation for Texas’s.
Now, with the U.S. Department of Justice joining the lawsuit, Democrats say they still expect to prove their case in court.
“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” said Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The lawsuit was filed the morning after California voters approved Proposition 50, which suspended all maps approved by the state’s independent commission and created new districts to help Democrats take at least five conservative-held seats.
The Republicans plaintiffs, for their part, say that California’s retaliatory gerrymandering was not only political but racially charged, with some districts redrawn to favor Hispanic voters.
“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop. 50,” said Jesus Osete, an official with the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.”
“The end result is a map that manipulates district lines in the name of bolstering the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race,” the lawsuit alleges. “Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander.”
President Donald Trump has also pressured Republican lawmakers in other states, including Missouri and North Carolina, to redistrict maps and flip Democratic-held seats to conservative candidates.
Sources
Justice Department joins lawsuit over California’s redrawn House map
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