Photo: Alamy
Attorney General Pam Bondi is reviewing all legal options available to the Department of Justice following a 2-1 decision from a federal court upholding California’s controversial Prop 50 congressional redistricting grab.
“We disagree with yesterday’s 2-1 ruling on California’s redistricting map,” Bondi said in a statement on social media. “California impermissibly drew its new congressional map based on race. That’s unconstitutional. We are reviewing all legal options.”
This comes after the DOJ filed a lawsuit last year against California following the passage of Prop 50, which implements a radical redraw of congressional districts in the Golden State before the 2030 census, just before the 2026 midterm elections.
The original suit, filed by California Republicans and Republican State Assemblyman David Tangipa, as well as 18 California voters, alleges racial gerrymandering is at the heart of the proposed redrawn maps, which will essentially erase Republican-held House seats and replace them with Democrats.
AG Bondi previously described this gerrymandering effort as a “redistricting power grab.”
According to CBS, the court acknowledged “that the evidence presented reflects that Proposition 50 was exactly what it was billed as: a political gerrymander designed to flip five Republican-held seats to the Democrats.”
And yet, the majority of the court found that evidence of racial gerrymandering was unfounded. Judge Kenneth Lee dissented.
“It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race,” Lee wrote in his dissent. “…But California sullied its hands with this sordid business when it engaged in racial gerrymandering as part of its mid-decade congressional redistricting plan to add five more Democratic House seats. We know race likely played a predominant role in drawing at least one district because the smoking gun is in the hands of Paul Mitchell, the mapmaker who drew the congressional redistricting map adopted by the California state legislature.”
California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom took a victory lap on Wednesday following the ruling, writing on X, “Republicans’ weak attempt to silence voters failed. California voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 50 — to respond to Trump’s rigging in Texas — and that is exactly what this court concluded.”
It is likely, although not guaranteed, that the ruling this week on Prop 50 will be appealed and head to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the precedent for the plaintiffs seems somewhat bleak, given SCOTUS’ ruling last year allowing Texas to keep its newly redrawn, mid-decade congressional maps, which favored Republicans.