Court battle begins over Republican challenge to California's Prop. 50
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Republicans and Democrats squared off in court Monday in a high-stakes battle over the fate of California’s Proposition 50, which reconfigures the state’s congressional districts and could ultimately help determine which party controls the U.S.House in the 2026 midterms.Dozens of California politicians and Sacramento insiders — including GOP Assembly members and Democratic redistricting expert Paul Mitchell — have given depositions in the case or could be called to testify in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles over the next few days.The GOP wants the three-judge panel to temporarily block California’s new district map, claiming it is unconstitutional and illegally favors Latino voters.An overwhelming majority of California voters approved Proposition 50 on Nov.
4 after Gov.Gavin Newsom pitched the redistricting plan as a way to counter partisan gerrymandering in Texas and other GOP-led states.
Democrats acknowledged the new map would weaken Republicans’ voting power in California, but argued that it would just be a temporary measure to try to restore the national political balance.Attorneys for the GOP cannot challenge the new redistricting map on the grounds that it disenfranchises swaths of California Republicans.In 2019, the U.S.
Supreme Court decided that complaints of partisan gerrymandering have no path in federal court.California If Californians vote in favor of the measure on Nov.
4, the number of Republicans in California’s House — nine of 52 total members — would likely be cut in half.But the GOP can bring claims of racial discrimination.They argue that California legislators drew the new congressional maps based on race, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment, which prohibits governments from denying citizens the right to vote based on race or color.Republicans face an uphill struggle in blocking ...