Today we filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit challenging California’s Proposition 50's map. We are asking the federal court to block the State from using this map in the 2026 elections because they are an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Here’s what this means:
Last summer, legislative Democrats scrapped the nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission’s map and replaced it with one drawn by a political consultant hired by the DCCC.
In total, sixteen of California’s fifty-two congressional districts—nearly one-third of the entire map—were deliberately drawn to favor one racial group. Yet there was no Voting Rights Act violation to remedy: under the prior Commission map, racial minorities were already electing 27 members of Congress, and analysts confirmed the old map fully complied with federal law. The Legislature had no evidence and no legal basis to sort millions of Californians by race.
Our motion explains that the Proposition 50 map violates both the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Fifteenth Amendment’s ban on race-based abridgment of voting rights. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states may not use race as the predominant factor in drawing districts unless strict scrutiny is met, and California cannot meet it here.
We’re asking the court to preserve the status quo by blocking the new map and keeping in place the existing Citizens Redistricting Commission lines while the case proceeds. Candidates must know their districts by December 19, so timely relief is essential to prevent chaos in the 2026 election.