What happened
The Justice Department Thursday joined a federal lawsuit seeking to block California’s new congressional map, drawn by state Democrats to flip as many as five Republican-held House seats to counteract a gerrymander in Texas.
The lawsuit “sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight” between President Donald Trump, who sparked the unusual redistricting battle, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a “likely 2028 presidential contender,” said The Associated Press.
Who said what
Federal courts are “prohibited from policing partisan gerrymandering following a sweeping 2019 Supreme Court ruling,” Politico said, so DOJ officials argued that California’s map “violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act by factoring in racial demographics,” specifically Latino voters. No GOP-led state has yet “faced federal legal action after revamping district lines following Trump’s call for new maps to expand GOP numbers in the House,” the AP said. A Democratic takeover of the chamber next year would “imperil Trump’s agenda.”
California’s new congressional map was approved by nearly 65% of state voters last week. Newsom’s “redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “These losers lost at the ballot box,” countered Newsom spokesperson Brandon Richards, “and soon they will also lose in court.”
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What next?
A DOJ victory in the suit would “scramble Democrats’ plan to push back” against the GOP’s “rare, mid-decade redistricting ploys,” CNN said. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have already followed Texas in drawing new GOP-friendly maps, and another handful of red, blue and purple states are considering joining the gerrymander race.
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