Department of Justice sues to stop new Congressional maps approved this month
LOS ANGELES (KEYT) – On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint against recently passed Proposition 50 alleging the state's new Congressional boundaries are a racially-motivated gerrymander and violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and federal voting rights.
"Although the Supreme Court has allowed race-conscious redistricting to rectify prior violations of the Voting Rights Act, the Department of Justice has approved California’s pre-existing election system as recently as President Barack Obama’s term," opened Thursday's filing. "No one, let alone California, contends that its pre-existing map unlawfully discriminated on the basis of race. Because the Proposition 50 map does, the United States respectfully requests that this Court enjoin Defendants from using it in the 2026 election and future elections."
The filing named Governor Newsom and Secretary of State Weber as defendants and joins an existing legal effort to block the new district boundaries filed the day after the special election by a Republican member of the state legislature and 18 other voters.
Article I Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution assigns the authority to determine the times, places, and manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives to respective state legislatures while empowering the federal legislature to pass laws that may alter those regulations.
Typically, state's redraw their congressional district boundaries following the publication of the results of the census every decade and since 2010, redistricting in California has been done by a 14-member independent redistricting commission.
In July of this year, the Texas state legislature proposed new congressional districts that are expected to net additional seats for Republicans after President Trump called for the changes to expand the slim majority the party has in the House of Representatives.
In response, other states joined the mid-decade redistricting push, including California, which presented the opportunity to voters in a special election to approve changes to the state's Constitution to temporarily redraw boundaries without the independent commission's input.
No other state's mid-decade redistricting efforts were mentioned in Thursday's press release from the Department of Justice.
"California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a press release Thursday. "Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand."
Thursday's federal complaint alleges that race was explicitly used to create the new maps in California.
"Proposition 50 would serve as a "shield" against "racist maps," they [California legislators] told each other, so that minorities in California could "stand up and be counted", argued the complaint. "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 complaint went on to argue that because, "Recent elections show that Hispanics have not struggled to elect politicians of their choice in California", and statements made by Paul Mitchell- a data consultant based in Sacramento who is the head of Redistricting Partners a demography firm tasked with redrawing California's congressional districts- about creating "Latino majority/minority districts" violated federal voting laws and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The complaint shared a post on X/Twitter by Mitchell detailing the changes that is shown below.
"An analysis of the Proposition 50 map shows that the professed goal of increasing Democratic representation was subordinated to increasing Hispanic-majority districts," stated Thursday's complaint.
The complaint further alleged that comments made during consideration of Proposition 50 in the state's legislature about the impact of mid-decade redistricting efforts in Texas and Florida on minority representation in Congress were sufficient enough to violate federal law.
For example, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan explained that due to mid-decade redistricting, "[A] Latino voice in Texas is worth one third of the representation as a white voice," and, "[a] black voter in Texas is worth one fifth of the representation of a white voter in Texas" when arguing in support of Proposition 50 noted the complaint.
The complaint concluded that the maps created through Proposition 50 violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and asked for the courts to enter a permanent injunction to prohibit their use.
"The race-based gerrymandered maps passed by the California legislature are unlawful and unconstitutional," argued First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California. "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."
The first milestone to be crossed under the new maps in Dec. 19, 2025, when congressional candidates can begin to collect signatures to qualify for the 2026 election cycle.
