California Republicans Sue to Block New Congressional Maps (1)

The California Republican Party sued Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Wednesday in an attempt to block the state’s new congressional districts, approved by voters hours earlier through a state-wide ballot measure.

Proposition 50, which passed by wide-margins Tuesday, will implement a Democratic-leaning map imperiling the seats of five Republican members of Congress.

Newsom championed the proposition, which temporarily suspends California’s independent redistricting commission, as a counter to Texas’ mid-decade Congressional map redraw that would add Republican seats in the 2026 midterms. The redistricting efforts, playing out in states across the country, could determine control of Congress for the back end of President Donald Trump’s term.

The Wednesday lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California said California’s new maps are unconstitutional, violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.

The California Legislature’s Democratic-majority “drew new congressional district lines based on race, specifically to favor Hispanic voters, without cause or evidence to justify it,” the lawsuit said.

“The map is designed to favor one race of California voters over others,” Mike Columbo, an attorney for the plaintiffs and partner at the Dhillon Law Group, told reporters during a press conference.

He said the lawsuit is funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

California Republican lawmakers this summer sought to block the proposition from appearing on the November ballot, but the state Supreme Court declined to stop the plan.

The lawsuit, which also names individual California Republican lawmakers and congressional candidates as plaintiffs, comes as Texas faces its own legal scrutiny over its new map. A panel of federal judges in Texas are set to decide whether the map is unconstitutional based on racial gerrymandering.

The California legal challenge similarly argues the new map illegally favor Hispanic voters. The state legislature can’t hide behind the Voting Rights Act, which allows race-based gerrymandering in some instances, because the legislature lacks evidence that Hispanic voters couldn’t elect their preferred candidate without the gerrymander, the complaint said.

“What we have seen with Prop. 50—these maps—they are completely diminishing the voices of other groups to benefit other groups,” Assemblymember David Tangipa (R), one of the plaintiffs, said at a press conference.

The case is Tangipa v. Newsom, C.D. Cal., No. 2:25-cv-10616, 11/5/25.