The U.S. Justice Department has joined a Republican lawsuit challenging new congressional maps that California voters approved last week to favor Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.
The case asserts that the maps, which were championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, are unconstitutional because they improperly use voters’ race as a factor in determining district boundaries. It was filed last week by the California Republican Party, and on Thursday the Justice Department announced it had filed to intervene in the suit asking the courts to block the maps.
“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
It’s the latest development in what has become a nationwide battle between Republican- and Democratic-controlled states to draw new congressional maps that could determine which party wins control of the House of Representatives next year. President Trump set off the unusual frenzy over the summer when he pressured Texas officials to gerrymander that state’s maps to help Republicans. In the months since then, moves to draw new congressional districts have swept the nation.
The new California maps would make it easier for Democrats to win as many as five of California’s congressional seats that are now held by Republicans. Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, drafted the plan as a response to the scheme in Texas, where Republicans approved new congressional maps that aim to take five seats away from Democrats. The California redistricting plan went before the state’s voters last week as Proposition 50, and passed overwhelmingly with 64 percent of the vote.
“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” Mr. Newsom’s press office wrote on social media in response to the Justice Department’s announcement that it had joined the Republican lawsuit.
Republicans sued over the maps the day after the election, arguing that drafters had engaged in racial gerrymandering by drawing districts to empower Latino voters. Lawyers for the California Republican Party said the suit was being paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee, the political arm of House Republicans.
On Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee intervened on the side of Mr. Newsom, arguing that the maps affect its ability to “elect Democratic candidates in California’s congressional districts and achieve a majority in the House of Representatives.” The organization is represented by the law firm of Marc Elias, one of the Democratic Party’s top election lawyers.
The Republicans’ lawsuit was filed by attorneys who work for a firm founded by Harmeet K. Dhillon, a longtime Republican activist who was appointed by Mr. Trump to run the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Ms. Dhillon has been recused from the case, according to an announcement from the Justice Department.
Laurel Rosenhall is a Sacramento-based reporter covering California politics and government for The Times.
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