Republicans in California on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a high-stakes redistricting measure that could help flip up to five congressional seats for Democrats.
The suit, filed by David Tangipa, a Republican assembly member, 18 California voters and the state Republican party in the US district court for the central district of California, argues that the new maps are unconstitutional because they were drawn to increase the voting power of a particular racial group. It asks the court to block the new maps from taking effect, at least temporarily.
The measure, Proposition 50, was approved by voters on Tuesday evening, in a decisive victory for Democrats. The plan temporarily gives the power to draw congressional districts to the California legislature, allowing it to adopt maps that will help Democrats pick up five seats in the US House of Representatives.
The plan is a direct response to gerrymandering in Texas, where Republicans, at the US president’s behest, have carved out several new safe Republican districts in an effort led by Donald Trump to keep the House under Republican control during the last two years of his second term.
Mike Columbo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that California Democrats drew the maps to increase the power of Latino voters.
While the supreme court allows states to use race as a factor in drawing political maps, Columbo argued that the intent was to help minority voters elect the candidates of their choice. In California, he noted, Hispanic voters represent the largest ethnic group.
“There is no majority race in California more than Hispanics,” Columbo said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. “Hispanics have had fantastic success in electing candidates of their choice. Accordingly, California cannot meet this exception.”
Democrats have expressed confidence that the maps would withstand a legal challenge.
“We haven’t reviewed 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 responded on X as it retweeted a video of the moment when the mics fell into the podium at the start of the Republicans’ press conference. “Good luck, losers.”
The Republican challenge comes amid the backdrop of a high-stakes voting rights case before the supreme court that could limit states’ ability to consider the racial makeup of voting populations when drawing district lines. In arguments last month, the court’s conservative majority appeared poised to weaken section two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racially discriminatory electoral practices, as it applies to redistricting.
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California found the new congressional boundaries created by Proposition 50 leaves racial representation nearly unchanged, maintaining the same number of majority-Latino districts as the maps drawn by the state’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.
California’s retaliatory gerrymander is the most significant response by Democrats to date in the unprecedented mid-decade redistricting battle that has spread across the country. On Tuesday night, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, called on Democratic-led states to follow suit, after Trump persuaded several Republican state legislatures to enact new maps that favor his party.
Passage of the measure was so decisive that the Associated Press issued a race call as soon as polls closed in the state. With 75% of the vote counted on Wednesday, the yes campaign was leading by a wide margin, nearly 64% to 36%.
The plaintiffs are being represented by the Dhillon Law Group, which was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who is now assistant attorney general overseeing the US Department of Justice civil rights division. The firm also represented California Republicans earlier this year in their unsuccessful attempt to prevent the special election from taking place.
