DOJ sues California over Prop 50 redistricting map while Texas and Florida Republican gerrymanders go unchallenged

On November 4, 2025, California voters approved Proposition 50 — officially the Election Rigging Response Act — by a 64.4% margin, authorizing the Democratic-controlled legislature to replace the state's independent commission map with new congressional lines favoring Democrats. Nine days later, on November 13, Attorney General Pam Bondi's Justice Department filed suit against Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, calling the map "a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights." DOJ argued the legislature used Latino demographics as the primary factor when drawing new districts, violating the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. The new map, drawn by Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell and submitted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, puts five Republican incumbents into more Democratic districts across Southern California, the Central Valley, and Northern California. DOJ joined an existing Republican-led lawsuit and asked courts to block the map before the 2026 midterms. Critics pointed to DOJ's silence on Republican-drawn maps in Texas and Florida — the very Texas map Newsom cited as justification for Prop 50 in the first place. On January 14, 2026, a federal district court upheld California's map 2-1. On February 4, the Supreme Court denied the Republican and DOJ appeal without comment or dissent, clearing the map for the 2026 midterms.