DOJ Joins Legal Bid to Stop California’s New Congressional Map

The Justice Department on Thursday joined a lawsuit filed by California Republicans that aims to block the state’s new congressional map.

The new districts were approved by California voters last week as part of the highly contested Proposition 50 campaign. The lawsuit, originally filed by the Dhillon Law Group on behalf of the California Republican Party on Nov. 5, is asking the court to block usage of the map ahead of next year’s elections.

The plaintiffs are suing California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Gov. Gavin Newsom, who shrugged off the lawsuit via a spokesperson.

“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, told NOTUS in a statement.

Central to the DOJ’s legal argument is the claim that California’s map-makers used race to create the new congressional lines.

“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50 — the recent ballot initiative that junked California’s pre-existing electoral map in favor of a rush-job rejiggering of California’s congressional district lines,” the DOJ’s Proposed Complaint in Intervention, filed Thursday, reads.

“In the press, California’s legislators and governor sold a plan to promote the interests of Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections,” the complaint continues. “But amongst themselves and on the debate floor, the focus was not partisanship, but race.”

The new map, which passed with overwhelming support last Tuesday in an election that was called minutes after the polls closed, are part of a larger redistricting battle nationwide.

Proposition 50 could add as many as five Democratic-leaning congressional seats ahead of the 2026 elections.