{"id":175930,"date":"2025-08-26T03:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175930\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T03:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:03:12","slug":"republicans-try-again-to-block-newsoms-plan-that-would-tilt-the-scales-for-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/175930\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans try again to block Newsom’s plan that would tilt the scales for Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0California Republicans again asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to block Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s redistricting plan from the November ballot, arguing that the hastily assembled initiative<\/a> violates the state Constitution.<\/p>\n

In a 432-page lawsuit, Republican lawmakers said the effort by Democrats to unwind the state\u2019s nonpartisan congressional districts is a violation of Californians\u2019 rights to fair and nonpartisan electoral maps. The party made a similar argument last week in an emergency petition to the state Supreme Court that was denied without a hearing.<\/p>\n

The ballot measure<\/a> was crafted by Democrats as a retaliatory strike against the GOP-led Texas Legislature, which has passed new congressional districts that would help Republicans pick up five seats in the 2026 midterm elections. <\/p>\n

The California plan, which is headed to voters Nov. 4 under the name Proposition 50, would throw out the state\u2019s nonpartisan maps in favor of boundaries that would tilt the scales for Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed Monday against California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber and the state Legislature argues that the ballot measure is actually asking voters to answer two questions: first, whether Congress should amend the U.S. Constitution to require independent redistricting nationwide; and second, whether to scrap the nonpartisan districts in the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections in favor of partisan lines that help Democrats. <\/p>\n

That double-barreled question is an \u201cillegal, take-it-or-leave-it choice,\u201d said Michael Columbo, an attorney for the plaintiffs, that \u201cforces a person in favor of independent commissions into a conundrum\u201d and violates the state constitution, which limits ballot measures to a single issue. <\/p>\n

That argument is \u201cweak,\u201d said David A. Carrillo, the executive director of Berkeley Law\u2019s California Constitution Center. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe common subject here obviously is redistricting,\u201d Carrillo said. <\/p>\n

President Trump said Monday that the Justice Department will sue California<\/a> over the plan \u201cpretty soon, and I think we\u2019re going to be very successful in it.\u201d He didn\u2019t explain what legal standing the administration would have to challenge the state Legislature. <\/p>\n

In a post on the social media site X, Newsom said of the Trump threat: \u201cBRING IT<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Weber said the department had no comment on the lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s toadies already got destroyed once in court,\u201d said Hannah Milgrom, a spokesperson for the Yes on 50 campaign, in a statement. \u201cNow they are trying again, to protect Trump\u2019s power grab and prevent voters from having their say on Prop 50. They will lose.\u201d <\/p>\n

The lawsuit also argues that the state Legislature violated the state Constitution by proposing new congressional districts, despite the fact that voters in 2010 passed a measure giving that power to an independent panel. <\/p>\n

Republicans argue that in order to comply with the state\u2019s current redistricting laws, Democrats should have first asked voters to suspend independent redistricting, then passed new maps afterward.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the legal fight, Carrillo said, is voters\u2019 tremendous power to amend the California Constitution, including who drafts the state\u2019s congressional districts. <\/p>\n

\u201cVoters gave this power to the commission they created,\u201d Carrillo said. \u201cThe voters can therefore modify or withdraw the power they conferred.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court has occasionally removed voter initiatives from the ballot, Carrillo said, but it\u2019s rare, controversial and reserved for the most extreme cases. It\u2019s \u201cvery unlikely the court would reach for the nuclear option,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Also Monday, opponents of the ballot measure filed a public records act request with state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, seeking communications between his office, Newsom and prominent Democratic strategists about how Prop. 50 will appear on the ballot. <\/p>\n

The group, formed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and run by former California GOP chair Jessica Millan Patterson, said Democrats had called for transparency and ought to provide it too. <\/p>\n

\u201cVoters deserve to know if these top Democrats are actively trying to put their thumb on the scale for how their partisan power grab will be portrayed in what should be an impartial analysis,\u201d Patterson said.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0California Republicans again asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to block Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s redistricting plan from…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":175931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[81286,1582,276,99955,7033,99956,99958,2961,379,224,5337,9548,99957,3435,6172,1807,5620,99954,99959,99953],"class_list":{"0":"post-175930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ballot-measure","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-carrillo","12":"tag-democrats","13":"tag-favor","14":"tag-independent-redistricting","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lawsuit","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-monday","20":"tag-new-congressional-district","21":"tag-newsom","22":"tag-power","23":"tag-president-trump","24":"tag-republicans","25":"tag-state-constitution","26":"tag-state-supreme-court","27":"tag-voter-nov"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115092849026599411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}