November 11, 2025
Golden State Republican Women
Janet Price, President
Submitted by the GSRW Legislative Analyst Committee
Valerie Evans, Lou Ann Flaherty and Elaine Freeman,
THE LAWSUIT FILED OVER PASSAGE OF PROPOSITION 50
The California Republican Party has filed a lawsuit against Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, and Shirley Weber, Secretary of State of California, arguing that the new maps are unconstitutional because they improperly use voters race as a factor in drawing districts and asks the court to block them from taking effect.
The Dhillon Law Group, founded by Harmeet Dhillon, now Asst. US Attorney General for Civil Rights at the US Dept. of Justice under President Trump is representing them.
Asking the courts to put the initiative on hold will, hopefully, allow for the legally established districts by the Redistricting Commission to stand until they meet again after the 2030 census.
The plaintiffs’ attorney in the federal lawsuit filed last week said the proposition will be found unconstitutional, because the Legislature had no legal basis to move forward with a redistricting effort.
“The record we have established that, before the maps were voted upon and after analyses were conducted that concluded that there was no voting rights problem in California’s prior maps for the Legislature to remedy” he said. Further there is no evidence whatsoever that the California legislature in fact circulated any such analysis to the legislators for them to consider when they cast their votes to launch Proposition 50.”
Prop 50 establishes new congressional district maps for the 2026 midterm elections that will also be used for the 2028 and 2030 elections. An analysis by the election news website Ballotpedia said it would shift five Republican-held congressional districts toward Democrats.
Democrats currently hold a 43-9 advantage in the state’s House Delegation. So potentially shifting 5 to Democrat means that California Republican voters would be shut out of representation even further.
The lawsuit, which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims the state’s move to redraw its congressional lines is unconstitutional and violates the 14th and 15th Amendments for redistricting on the basis of race, “specifically to favor Hispanic voters, without cause or evidence to justify it.”
“While the Constitution entrusts States with designing congressional districts, the Supreme Court has also held that states may not, without a compelling reason backed by evidence that was in fact considered, separate citizens into different voting districts on the basis of race,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit, filed by the California Republican Party along with a group of California voters, including GSRW leadership, and Republican candidates, is the latest pushback in a growing list of litigation across the country attempting to counter gerrymandering in the sweeping redistricting war.
This is a great move. The sad part is that the Governor and Legislature spent over $200,000,000 of tax dollars for this effort. Money that could definitely have been better spent.
This suit will be watched closely and we should all be glad that this action has been taken.
Another bill of interest signed by the governor:
SB 403 (Blakespear (D)) End of life Option Act – Sunset
Existing law, The End of Life Option Act, until 1/1/2031, authorizes an adult who meets certain qualifications, including, among other things, being a resident of the State of California, and who has been determined by their attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life.
Existing law makes specified violations of the act a crime, including knowingly coercing or exerting undue influence on an individual to request or ingest an aid-in-dying drug for the purpose of ending their life.
This bill repeals the 1/1/31, expiration date of the act, thereby extending the operation of the act indefinitely. By extending the operation of crimes within the act, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Signed by the governor on 10/03/2025
Legislative Portal links – Express your support or opposition to a bill or directly to the Legislative committee currently reviewing it (as an individual, not as a member of RW or GSRW) – click here, or the bill’s author – click here, enter your bill # and look for tab at top of the bill page labeled “Comments to Author”.
