The U.S. Department of Justice launched a sweeping challenge Thursday against California Gov. Gavin Newsom, alleging that the state’s newly approved Proposition 50 congressional map amounts to unlawful racial gerrymandering engineered to elevate Hispanic voting power—at the expense of constitutional protections.
The 18-page federal complaint claims Proposition 50, championed by Newsom and approved by voters on Election Day, was crafted to flip five U.S. House seats for Democrats in the 2026 cycle.
“The result is a map that manipulates district lines to boost Hispanic Californians solely because of their race,” the DOJ asserts. “Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander.”
The lawsuit asks the court to declare Proposition 50 unconstitutional and bar the state from using the disputed lines in 2026 and future elections.
A National Redistricting Battle Heats Up
California’s redistricting push followed an aggressive move by Texas Republicans—encouraged by former President Donald Trump—to redraw their map to capture additional House seats. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed that map into law in August.
But unlike cases where race-conscious redistricting remedies violations of the Voting Rights Act, the DOJ notes that no evidence suggests California’s prior map discriminated on racial grounds.
The Proposition 50 map, the DOJ argues, does.
