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California voters received a special election ballot<\/a> this month in the mail with a single, poignant question: Should California authorize temporary changes to California congressional district maps in response to Texas’ partisan redistricting?<\/p>\n \u201cThat becomes an ethical question for a democrat who favors good government. Should I accept this temporary getting rid of fairly drawn lines, because what the Republicans and Trump are doing is so wrong, that you have to combat it?\u201d said Richard Fox<\/a>, Ph.D., professor of political science and dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts (BCLA).<\/p>\n Since the passing of Proposition 11 in 2008, California has had an independent citizen-led group, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission<\/a> (CRC), responsible for drawing new district lines. In 2010, the CRC gained the added responsibility of drawing Congressional districts<\/a>, which controls how many seats California has in the House of Representatives, and which areas of the state those districts make up. In doing so they took the power of redistricting away from legislative bodies, and instead put it in the hands of citizens. Other states like New York, Colorado and Montana followed suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCitizens in a bunch of states have decided that they trust themselves more than they trust incumbent politicians. They want to be in control of deciding which politicians to elect rather than the other way around,\u201d said Justin Levitt<\/a>, professor of law at Loyola Law School and founder of All About Redistricting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Independent commissions are one of the facets of the Californian government that make me proud of being from this state. It shows that we value people over political parties. This furtherance of democracy remains unknown to states like Texas where drawing district maps is a choice made by legislators. This creates the opportunity for political power grabs as seen by the proposed maps from the State Legislature<\/a> in Texas, which would add five new Republican leaning districts ahead of the 2026 midterms. These districts do not reflect the population of Texas and were created very explicitly for Republican political gain. It puts power in the hands of politicians and lets them control who gets elected to represent Texans.<\/p>\n Proposition 50 directly combats this through the creation of Democrat leaning<\/a> districts, but it suspends the CRC\u2019s ability to enact congressional district maps until 2031<\/a>. Through compromising the integrity of our state\u2019s democratic processes, Proposition 50 prevents a greater national threat of an undemocratic takeover. The increasing political polarization<\/a> in this country has created an environment where partisan identities threaten the checks and balances of our country\u2019s constitution. Yet, Proposition 50, at a state level, reflects the same behavior as those who threaten democracy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s gerrymandering, that\u2019s what it is, and it\u2019s plain and simple trying to give the government the power to change districts,\u201d said Elizabeth Leka, a journalism major. \u201cI understand that it\u2019s to gain power in the House \u2026 I just don\u2019t understand because it makes us as bad as them.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerrymandering<\/a> is the term used to describe the unconstitutional manipulation of congressional and state districts to favor one\u2019s party. Despite it being unconstitutional and thus unlawful, a 2019 Supreme Court Case<\/a> made it impossible to combat gerrymandering beyond a state level. The Supreme Court deemed that political gerrymandering could not be subject to Federal Court review, which left redistricting unsupervised in the hands of states.<\/p>\n \u201cThey blocked federal courts from hearing cases about partisan gerrymandering \u2026 and the real unfortunate thing, it\u2019s part of what happens when the rule of law breaks down, people turn to self-help,\u201d said Levitt. \u201cTexas has decided to violate the Constitution and there are no adults in the room to stop them. I can understand California voters choosing to decide that they want to violate the Constitution, too. \u201d<\/p>\n