WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The Justice Department has filed legal action against California Governor Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber over the State's newly adopted redistricting plan enacted with the passage of Proposition 50.
The suit alleges that the plan mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Voters in California last week approved Newsom's proposal to redraw the state's congressional districts to give the Democratic Party an advantage in five new congressional districts in the upcoming midterm polls.
The redistricting bill, known as Proposition 50, amends the California Constitution, allowing the legislature to draw a new congressional-district map.
The Justice Department alleges that substantial evidence, including that in the legislative record and public statements, indicate that the legislature created a new map in which Latino demographics and racial considerations predominated, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.
'California's redistricting scheme is a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,' said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. 'Governor Newsom's attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.'
'Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop 50,' said Jesus A. Osete, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. 'Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.'
'The U.S. Department of Justice is moving swiftly to prevent these illegal maps from tainting our upcoming elections. California is free to draw congressional maps, but they may not be drawn based on race,' said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California.
'These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,' BBC News quoted a spokesperson for Newsom as saying in a statement.
The Department's motion to intervene in Tangipa et al v Newsom is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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