Federal Court Rejects Trump DOJ and GOP Challenge to California’s Proposition 50 Congressional Map
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal three-judge panel today denied motions for preliminary injunction filed by the California Republican Party and the Trump administration’s Department of Justice seeking to block California’s voter-approved Proposition 50 congressional map. The court found that challengers “failed to show that racial gerrymandering occurred” and concluded there was “no basis for issuing a preliminary injunction.”
Today’s ruling is a victory for California voters, who overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50 on November 4, 2025, with 64.4% of the vote. Elias Law Group attorneys representing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) intervened in the Republican lawsuit to defend the map.
“This decision is a vindication of California voters and a decisive rebuke of the Republican Party’s attempt to use the courts to overturn an election,” said Elias Law Group partner Abha Khanna. “The court correctly recognized that Proposition 50 was an unambiguously partisan response to Texas’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting. The accusations of racial gerrymandering, especially coming from Republicans and Trump’s Department of Justice, were nothing more than a cynical attempt to prevent California voters from having their voice heard in response to Texas.”
“President Trump's Department of Justice devoted enormous taxpayer resources to overturning the results of an election that California voters decided by a nearly two-to-one margin,” said Elias Law Group partner Lali Madduri. “The seven million Californians who voted for Proposition 50 knew that the new map was a partisan response, as we made clear during last month's hearing. Elias Law Group was proud to represent the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to defend the will of California voters.”
As the court wrote in its 70-page majority opinion: “Our conclusion probably seems obvious to anyone who followed the news in the summer and fall of 2025.” The court found that “the record contains a mountain of statements reflecting the partisan goals of Proposition 50, from which Challengers have culled a molehill of statements showing race consciousness on the part of the mapmaker and certain legislators. But that is not enough to make the necessary showing that the relevant decisionmakers—here, the electorate—enacted the new map for racial reasons.”
With today’s ruling, the Proposition 50 Map will remain in effect for the 2026 midterm elections.
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