The California GOP filed a lawsuit yesterday to block implementation of Prop 50 which passed with 64% of the vote the day before. No one was surprised. They failed with two lawsuits to keep it from ever being voted on in the first place. And it’s not like Democrats haven’t gone to court to block the rash of GOP mid cycle gerrymanders in Red states. What’s astounding is the basis of the California lawsuit – that Prop 50 constitutes a racial gerrymander in violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments. What the hell?
Two things comes to mind. First, conservatives HATE the so-called Reconstruction Amendments and have filed many a lawsuit alleging they aren’t valid in the first place for “reasons” at the time they were passed by Congress and ratified. One of the aims of Leonard Leo’s Federalist Society has been to chip away at the Reconstruction amendments. To, if not overturn them at least render them functionally worthless. Infuriatingly, having packed the Supreme Court with hard core Federalist Society acolytes, five of whom were appointed by GOP Presidents that couldn’t even win the popular vote progress, or perhaps regress is the better descriptor has been made on this goal.
Conservatives have for decades held a majority on the Court and made a point of steadily taking away rights (at least from non-white folks and even whites who aren’t rich and powerful) instead of expanding them When it comes to voting rights Chief Justice John Roberts has been on a crusade against the Voting Rights Act. Even before Trump. He’s pretty much gutted it and is poised to deliver the coup de grace in this term. Which leads me to the second thing which is that the Roberts Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights act has already declared RACIAL gerrymandering unconstitutional!
Yep. They’ve ruled partisan gerrymandering is just fine. Have at it they say. But racial gerrymandering, ensuring even in some southern states where twenty or even thirty percent of residents are non-white (with most non-whites being Black people) drawing the lines to ensure no blacks are elected (or, grudgingly as few as they can manage) the good ole boys can have at it. In his WHITE ivory tower smarmy Roberts pretends there’s no problem. Not really. And he wrote in a decision it’s sooooooo easily fixed when he said ‘the way to end discrimination is to not discriminate.’ Yeah (evil) John Boy. That sure did the trick!
My point is that out in California, as this article from PBS tells us SCOTUS made it clear their thoughts on racial gerrymandering. As far as Roberts is concerned the issue is close, yet the California GOP wants to reopen the can of worms and shine a spotlight on Robert’s (and his cronies’) naked partisanship and bigotry. Roberts has moved on to other items on the Federalist Society agenda and this is something he does NOT want the spotlight to again shine on. Even though he’s got the votes to issue another ‘this is racial gerrymandering and that’s not allowed’ ruling it will suck up a lot of oxygen. And hurt the GOP at the ballot box when they are clearly facing strong headwinds.
So, if the California GOP presses the issue up to their level Roberts will have to knock heads to keep SCOTUS from taking up the case! That’s why it’s a loser out of the gate. Gov. Newsome knows it and also knows there’s more than one reason it’s a loser. Starting with the law firm that filed it as this article from TheWrap states:(Sorry, I can’t seem to post the actual tweet from Newsom’s Press Office)
We haven’t reviewed the lawsuit, but if it’s from the California Republican Party and Harmeet Dhillon’s law firm, it’s going to fail.
Good luck, losers.
If you think that’s good click on the link to see the actual tweet because it includes a brief video. The very person and firm Newsom referred to had shall we say a mishap right at the beginning of the big announcement. I laughed and bet you will too.
Well, let’s talk about some actual substance. More or less the lawsuit alleges the new map takes race into account so black people could be better represented is a no-no. States of the former Confederacy (well the white folks) rubbed their hands with glee and have been hard at work. However now their pals out in California are all upset over a new map they claim will give BROWN people (Hispanics) special/extra representation. Admittedly this gets confusing. Also ironic.
Conservatives railed about provisions in the Voting Rights Act that forced those good ole boy rebel states to draw districts that would give at least some blacks an actual representative who’d live a life putting up with the same racism. Well, they won that battle and at the SCOTUS level. It’s done, at least until a Democratic Congress and administration can pass a new voting rights act. Hopefully with at least a couple of different Justices. The issue of alleged racial gerrymandering being dug up over this AND at a time when the GOP has pissed away significant Hispanic support Trump pulled in a year ago won’t go over well.
One last thing. From the day Newsom announced he’d explore his state looking to match what Tex-Ass had done he had a boatload of election and Constitutional lawyers (with California Constitution experience too) working on the actual legislation. This wasn’t some typical ‘thrown together in a hurry’ GOP piece of work but one that had been crafted KNOWING DOJ and private, big money lawyers would come gunning for the initiative if it passed. Newsom has and will continue to poke fun at the hapless firm that got the ball rolling but he knows big guns are coming to take over for those idiots.
Still, I’m confident Prop 50 is on solid footing. It’s already November and both state and federal courts out there will take their sweet time addressing the lawsuit. Plus the holidays are coming up. Then there will be appeals which will take more months and before you know it we’ll be into summer. Too late to do anything, at least for 2026 Even if Team Trump gets lucky and has a minion that would issue an injunction the Ninth Circuit would knock it down. Meanwhile, the GOP braying about California creating a Congressional map that would benefit Hispanics on top of what ICE is doing won’t play well at all.
I’m sure there are GOP professionals urging Team Trump to let this go. Their advice will be along the lines of California matched Texas’ move. Get over it, because SCOTUS has opened the door for enough GOP controlled states to add at least a dozen seats drawn for their Party. I’ve actually seen estimates of 15-19. Democrats might counter in a few places with Virginia being one of them. But we have to face the fact we can’t match them overall.
The good news which I imagine Murfster will explain in detail for various states is how thin the GOP will have to slice the the bologna to create all these new seats. With Trump and the GOP already seeing their approval nosedive (crucially with Independents, as well as under 30 voters from whom they pulled a surprising number of votes last year) they just might inadvertently screw themselves.
