In a big new announcement made on Thursday, November 13, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a major new legal attack on California, revealing that it had caught the state racially gerrymandering in favor of generally Democratic-voting Latinos in its attempt to redistrict, thus violating the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
As background, California’s redistricting has come in response to some red states engaging in redistricting to put themselves on equal footing with blue states, which have already largely gerrymandered against Republican districts. California was one of the few blue states with red districts left, and responded with a map that largely cuts out Republican political representation.
It did so, the DOJ alleges, by discriminating in favor of Latinos. And so the DOJ is suing. Announcing as much in its press release, the DOJ said, “The Justice Department announced today that it filed legal action against Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the State of California’s newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50. The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Explaining what it alleges has occurred that is illegal, the DOJ then said, “Proposition 50 amends the California Constitution, allowing the legislature to draw a new congressional-district map. Substantial evidence, including that in the legislative record and public statements, indicate that the legislature created a new map in which Latino demographics and racial considerations predominated, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”
Various DOJ figures chimed in to skewer California for its alleged misdeeds. Attorney General Pam Bondi, for example, said, “California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process. Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
Adding to that, Jesus A. Osete, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, said that what California is trying to do here is push forward a map that is racially discriminatory and thus illegal, saying, “Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop 50. Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.”
Also chiming in was First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California, who alleged that the gerrmandered California maps, “The race-based gerrymandered maps passed by the California legislature are unlawful and unconstitutional.”
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Continuing, Essayli indicated that a broader DOJ effort to crack down on such blue state moves to disenfranchise conservatives using illegal, race-based methods could be coming, commenting on the DOJ’s efforts against “illegal maps” and vowing that the department is moving with due haste. He said, “The U.S. Department of Justice is moving swiftly to prevent these illegal maps from tainting our upcoming elections. California is free to draw congressional maps, but they may not be drawn based on race.”
Check out MSNBC freaking out over GOP redistricting efforts here: