The Trump administration sued California on Thursday, Nov. 13, over the redistricting plan approved by voters last week, an attempt to invalidate the new congressional maps meant to help Democrats pick up House seats in next year’s midterm elections.

The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that it was race, rather than partisanship, that drove the governor and legislators in redoing the congressional maps that voters ultimately approved. The Justice Department, in its filing, said the maps were drawn to favor Hispanic voters and argued that racial gerrymandering is unconstitutional.

“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50 — the recent ballot initiative that junked California’s pre-existing electoral map in favor of a rush-job rejiggering of California’s congressional district lines,” the Justice Department said in the filing obtained by the Southern California News Group.

“During the Legislature’s consideration and debate of Proposition 50, several legislators gave racial — not political — reasons in favor of their votes for the new map,” it said. “They described other states’ redistricting efforts as efforts meant to suppress minority voters.”

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50, the redistricting ballot measure at the core of a hastily called special election. The election was called in favor of Proposition 50 almost immediately after polls closed on Nov. 4, a resounding victory for Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sought to add five extra Democratic House seats to California’s congressional maps.

Newsom and his Democratic allies have touted the mid-decade redistricting maneuver as a counter to similar gerrymandering efforts led by Republicans in Texas and other states at the behest of President Donald Trump.

But the Justice Department, which is joining an earlier lawsuit filed by California Republicans, pointed to statements made by legislators and Paul Mitchell, a political data analyst and redistricting expert who drew the proposed congressional maps, to argue the goal was to create maps that “manipulate district lines in the name of bolstering the voting power of Hispanic Californians because of their race.”

Brandon Richards, a spokesperson for Newsom, responded to the lawsuit by saying, “These losers lost at the ballot box and soon will also lose again in court.”

Mitchell, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department and California Republicans argued that Proposition 50 violates the 14th and 15th amendments because it unconstitutionally gerrymanders districts to favor Hispanic voters.

The Justice Department is asking the court to invalidate the maps approved by Proposition 50, making them unusable for the 2026 midterms or subsequent elections.

“The race-based gerrymandered maps passed by the California Legislature are unlawful and unconstitutional,” said Bill Essayli, who serves as the first assistant U.S. attorney. “We are 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,” he said.

Dhillon Law Group, the firm that filed the California Republicans’ lawsuit, was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department. Dhillon stepped down from her role at the law firm in April to work for the Trump administration, and she is recused from this matter, the Justice Department’s filing Thursday said.

Mike Columbo, counsel for the plaintiffs in the Republicans’ lawsuit, said they welcome the Justice Department’s involvement.

“Our lawsuit raises significant civil rights issues that warrant their participation,” Columbo said. “We remain hopeful that this case will protect millions of Californians whose constitutional rights the California Legislature violated with Proposition 50’s congressional district maps.”

Supporters of Proposition 50, though, are brushing off the lawsuit’s allegations.

“This lawsuit is nothing but a desperate attempt by Donald Trump to undermine the will of California voters,” said Sen. Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat and attorney. “Californians spoke clearly. This baseless political stunt won’t change that.”

In addition to the state GOP lawsuit, there’s a separate effort underway in California to ask voters to scale back the scope of Proposition 50 a bit.

While the ballot measure approved the new partisan maps for the next three elections, the proposed initiative aims to curtail them to just the 2026 midterms. Congressional maps already in place — these were drawn by the state’s independent commission — would be used in the 2028 and 2030 elections, the proposal states.

“Since Proposition 50 restores the commission in 2032, why should we wait? We can accept that voters made the change for 2026, but why wait for 2032?” said Orange County-based attorney James V. Lacy, who is spearheading this effort.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, is also suing several states — California included — over voter rolls management. The Justice Department has alleged that the states did not hand over all the voter registration information it sought and did not appropriately respond to questions about voter roll maintenance efforts.

The Trump administration also is suing Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page, alleging that he did not turn over full records related to the removal of non-citizens from voter registration lists. Page, through attorneys, has maintained he followed state and federal law and could not give sensitive personal information of registrants without a subpoena or court order.

On Election Day last week, Trump claimed without evidence that the election was rigged and hinted at the possibility of a legal challenge. The White House has not offered further clarification on what that action could be.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber called the president’s post “another baseless claim.”

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