{"id":40575,"date":"2025-11-06T08:53:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40575\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T08:53:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T08:53:35","slug":"california-republicans-challenge-prop-50-in-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/40575\/","title":{"rendered":"California Republicans challenge Prop. 50 in federal court"},"content":{"rendered":"

The morning after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50<\/a>, California Republicans filed a federal lawsuit against the redistricting measure, challenging it as an unconstitutional and racist gerrymandering effort.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Republican Party, Assemblyman David Tangipa (R-Fresno), and 18 individual GOP voters claim that the redrawn congressional districts are a violation of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s 14th and 15th amendments, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

The new districts for House seats were allegedly skewed in favor of Latino voters, the Republican lawsuit claims. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to everyone born in the United States and, more relevant to this lawsuit, guarantees equal protection of the law. The 15th Amendment says the right to vote cannot be denied because of a person\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Although state officials are expected to take several days to complete the ballot count, support for Prop. 50 was ahead by an overwhelming margin (opens in new tab)<\/a> in early results posted by the California secretary of state\u2019s office. Nearly 64% of voters have approved the measure out of just over 8 million ballots counted. The results will be certified Dec. 12.<\/p>\n

California voters in 2010 created an independent redistricting commission (opens in new tab)<\/a> to draw federal congressional boundaries after each decennial census. Surveys have shown that the 14-member panel, which consists of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four unaffiliated voters, enjoys bipartisan support (opens in new tab)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prop. 50 was put forward by Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to the successful effort by Texas Republicans to gerrymander their state\u2019s congressional districts to favor Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The maps authorized by Prop. 50 were created to benefit Democratic candidates and may enable the party to grab five more seats in the House of Representatives. The California maps will be used for the next three election cycles, until the commission meets again to update the districts based on census results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newsom has portrayed the move as a temporary alteration meant to push back on the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to solidify federal power. The argument apparently held sway with voters, who handed Newsom a major victory as he tries to boost his national profile in preparation for a potential presidential bid.<\/p>\n

Tangipa serves as lead plaintiff in the action, joined by state Republican Party Chairwoman Corrin Rankin and the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one fell swoop, political insiders grabbed the power away from the people,\u201d Rankin said after the race was called Tuesday. \u201cI truly believe that the Republican Party is on the right side of history in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Columbo, a partner at the Dhillon Law Group, and Mark P. Meuser are representing the plaintiffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Democratic Party chair said the Republicans were taking their cues from Trump at the expense of voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia Republicans want to ignore the overwhelming majority of California voters \u2014 all to bend the knee to Donald Trump,\u201d said Rusty Hicks. \u201cCalifornia Democrats look forward to upholding the will of voters, electing even more Democrats and retaking the House in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s office was more dismissive, saying the lawsuit was not going to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t reviewed the lawsuit, but if it\u2019s from the California Republican Party and Harmeet Dhillon\u2019s law firm, it\u2019s going to fail,\u201d a governor\u2019s office spokesperson wrote in an email. \u201cGood luck, losers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The morning after California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, California Republicans filed a federal lawsuit against the redistricting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,1016,991,15180],"class_list":{"0":"post-40575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-lawsuits","12":"tag-redistricting","13":"tag-republican-party"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}