DOJ urges Supreme Court to block California map, calls Newsom-backed plan a racial gerrymander

The Department of Justice alleged to the Supreme Court on Thursday that California improperly factored race into its newly redrawn congressional map, arguing that the high court should block the map because it violated the Voting Rights Act.

Solicitor General John Sauer said the map, approved by California voters under the ballot measure Proposition 50 in November, was “tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.” The Supreme Court should quickly intervene and pause a lower court’s decision that upheld the map, Sauer said.

The DOJ’s arguments came as part of a lawsuit state Republicans brought against Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over Proposition 50. The DOJ intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of the Republicans. 

HIGH-STAKES MAP FIGHT: HERE ARE THE NEXT BATTLEGROUNDS IN THE TRUMP VS. DEMOCRATS REDISTRICTING SHOWDOWN

California lawyers said in court papers that Republicans used the “flimsy veneer of racial gerrymandering” to challenge the map in court after failing to convince California voters to reject it. The lawyers argued that Republicans did not meet the “especially stringent” burden required to prove the maps were unconstitutionally redrawn with race at top of mind.

The court battle is one of several mid-decade redistricting fights to crop up ahead of the midterms. In response to a warning from the DOJ Civil Rights Division, Texas’ legislature approved a new Republican-friendly map last year that Democrats argued was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The Supreme Court upheld Texas’ map in December in an unsigned order in which the three liberal justices dissented.

Newsom responded to Texas by announcing that California would redraw its map to directly offset Republicans’ gains in Texas. California voters approved the ballot measure in November, which allowed the state to enact the map.

DOJ BACKS TEXAS IN SUPREME COURT FIGHT OVER REPUBLICAN-DRAWN MAP

Democrats have said the map was drawn for political purposes and gives them a five-seat advantage heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Sauer argued that race, and not politics, “predominated” in the redrawing of at least one of the districts.

“Unlike Texas’s map, the Prop 50 map suffers from a fatal constitutional flaw: one of the districts (District 13) was clearly drawn ‘on the basis of race,’” Sauer argued.

The solicitor general said the mapmaker, Paul Mitchell, openly said the district would bolster the Latino vote, particularly in the Central Valley, where the district in question is located.

Republicans asked the Supreme Court for an immediate response because candidates for the 2026 midterm elections will begin submitting their paperwork under the new map on Feb. 9.

The Newsom administration has until Jan. 29 to respond to the Supreme Court, and the justices could issue a decision anytime thereafter.