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On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a filing in a California federal district court, announcing that the federal government seeks to join a lawsuit submitted by the state Republican Party challenging recently enacted congressional maps that were passed as part of a voter-endorsed ballot initiative earlier this month.
California usually uses an independent commission to draw its political boundaries. But after President Donald Trump and Republicans in state legislatures across the country initiated a mid-census scheme to gerrymander their congressional districts (with hopes that doing so would help them retain control of the House of Representatives following the 2026 midterms), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) endorsed the ballot initiative asking voters to temporarily suspend the independent commission’s maps and to produce a new one, to flip five current Republican seats in the state toward becoming likely wins for Democrats next year, in order to counter Trump’s efforts.
The filing by the DOJ, however, downplays that recent history as inconsequential, and instead purports that California’s new maps are a racist gerrymander, reiterating arguments that the California Republican Party made in its original lawsuit submitted earlier this month.
“Our Constitution does not tolerate this racial gerrymander. Because the Proposition 50 map does, the United States respectfully requests that this court enjoin defendants from using it in the 2026 election and future elections,” the filing states, alleging that the new maps overrepresent Latinx voters and diminish the voting power of white residents.
In a statement accompanying the filing, Attorney General Pam Bondi called the new maps a “brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process” — ignoring that the Trump administration is essentially doing exactly what she’s accused California of.
“Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand,” she added.
Newsom’s press office responded to the filing on social media, writing, “These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court.”
Notably, other lawsuits are currently challenging the Trump-approved redrawing of maps in GOP-led states on the basis that they are unlawful because they diminish the voting power of people of color. But only in California, a Democratic-led state, has the department decided to get involved in racial gerrymandering arguments.
California voters resolutely approved the new Proposition 50 maps in a statewide election earlier this month, with approval from more than 64 percent of voters.
It’s unclear who may have the advantage in the lawsuit. However, previous attempts to block the initiative from happening, based on how the maps would be redrawn, were rejected in a prior lawsuit from the state Republican Party.
Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard, told The New York Times that the suit was likely to fail because its arguments were not very strong and would not be resolved in time for the midterms.
“If there’s a properly adopted map and there’s some uncertainty over the law, typically the map will stay in effect, and it’s the plaintiffs’ case that will be deferred or delayed until there’s some resolution of the legal standard,” Stephanopoulos said.
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