(Washington) The US Department of Justice on Thursday initiated legal action against the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, to challenge the redistricting of the electoral map, favorable to the Democrats, approved at the beginning of the month by referendum in this state.
According to the Justice Department’s complaint, this redistricting “imposes electoral districts based on racial criteria” in violation of 14e amendment to the United States Constitution which guarantees, among other things, that citizens enjoy “equal protection” of the law.
“California’s redistricting scheme is a blatant maneuver that tramples civil rights and makes a mockery of the democratic process,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
“Race cannot be used (…) to serve political interests,” added one of his deputies for civil rights, Jesus Osete.
Californian voters largely approved a new electoral map in favor of the Democrats on November 4, in order to compensate for a similar maneuver in Texas by the Republicans under pressure from Donald Trump.
California’s new electoral map should allow Democrats to gain five additional seats in the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections.
To consolidate the narrow Republican majority he has in the House of Representatives, Donald Trump obtained in August that Texas, a very Republican state, redraw its districts in order to send five more Republican elected officials to Congress.
In the United States, electoral districts must in principle be delimited after a national census carried out every ten years. But partisan electoral redistricting (“gerrymandering”) consisting of moving the boundaries of constituencies according to the interests of the ruling party in each state is commonplace.
