GOP sues to block California's voter-approved congressional district redraw

(CN) — California voters led by a Republican member of the state Assembly filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to stop what they call the unconstitutional redrawing of congressional district lines.

The suit, filed in the Central District of California, followed the Tuesday success of Proposition 50 at the polls. That measure, spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom, will replace existing congressional districts with maps that favor Democrats through the 2030 election cycle.

As of Wednesday, the initiative nabbed the support of nearly 5.4 million voters — just over 64% of the votes cast.

Assemblymember David Tangipa, a Fresno Republican, and several voters say in the suit that the Legislature violated the 14th and 15th Amendments of the Constitution. The new district lines are based on race, with a focus on favoring Hispanic voters, with no evidence to justify the move, they claim.

The plaintiffs ask a judge to declare the new congressional maps in violation of the two amendments, as well as stop Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber from enforcing the new maps.

According to the plaintiffs, the 14th Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the core mandate is racial neutrality in decision making.

The 15th Amendment prohibits unlawful racial gerrymandering, as someone’s vote can’t be denied or abridged because of race, they add.

“The California Legislature issued a press release announcing that Proposition 50 creates two new districts to ‘empower Latino voters to elect their candidates of choice,’ adding them to the preexisting 14 such districts,” the plaintiffs say.

The federal Voting Rights Act can permit race-based districting, the plaintiffs argue. However, the high court requires states to prove that district boundaries are based on evidence that a minority couldn’t elect a certain candidate because of concerted opposition by a white majority.

“Without proof of this condition, states have no lawful basis to enact race-based congressional districts,” the plaintiffs say.

Newsom has pointed to President Donald Trump’s request of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to redraw that state’s congressional districts to give Republicans five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which the Republican-led Texas Legislature did this past August. California responded in kind with lawmakers quickly pushing through legislation calling for Tuesday’s vote.

The new maps will remain in place until the 2030 census, when the Golden State’s independent citizens redistricting commission will regain power.

The plaintiffs in their suit note that the new maps were published on Aug. 15, mere days before lawmakers returned from their summer break. Four days later, the bills calling for the election passed.

Democratic leadership suspended certain legislative rules to expedite the bills’ passage.

“Because of the rule suspensions and the compressed timeline, the legislative package proceeded with limited public transparency,” the plaintiffs say in the complaint. “The suspension of the referral and reprint rules meant that legislators and stakeholders had little if any time to review changing versions of the bills, including major amendments to district boundaries and operative triggers.”

Paul Mitchell, the consultant tapped to draw the new maps, said he intentionally used race and Latino demographics when creating the districts. Statements like that show that race was used to draw the maps, and that they weren’t race neutral, the plaintiffs say.

Some lawmakers also issued statements about race being a major factor when drawing districts, they add.

“Proponents, include the Senate president pro tempore in a press release, publicly emphasized that the new map ‘retains and expands Voting Rights Act districts that empower Latino voters’ and ‘retains both historic Black districts and Latino-majority districts,’” the plaintiffs say. “By ‘Voting Rights Act districts,’ the press release is referring to districts deliberately drawn to favor one race of voters over others.”

Tangipa said during a press conference Wednesday that Newsom must stop focusing on other states like Texas and instead work on solving California’s problems.

“The governor should be worried about the issues in this state,” he said. “I’m here fighting for the people who can’t afford their utility costs.”

The governor’s press office derided the legal move.

“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,” a spokesperson said, referring to the prominent and conservative attorney tapped by Trump to be the assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. “Good luck, losers.”