By now you’ve likely heard the disappointing news that California voters have passed Proposition 50. But my fight to stop Gavin Newsom’s unconstitutional power grab is far from over.
Yesterday, I filed a federal lawsuit requesting a three-judge panel to review the constitutionality of Proposition 50. In this case, we explain how Proposition 50 is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.
Both the mapmaker who drew the lines and the Legislature that adopted them publicly admitted they created 16 racial districts specifically designed to elect minority candidates for Congress. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits legislatures from passing laws that single out citizens based on race.
The Supreme Court has recognized only one narrow exception, when a state can prove it must draw race-based districts to remedy specific past discrimination. To do that, the state must meet a three-part legal test. The third part requires proof that “the minority must be able to demonstrate that the white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it—in the absence of special circumstances, such as the minority candidate running unopposed—usually to defeat the minority’s preferred candidate.”
Let’s look at the facts:
There is no white majority in California.
Minority candidates are regularly elected to office across the state.
The evidence shows that Californians vote based on the color of politics, not the color of a candidate’s skin.
Because of this, our lawsuit asks the federal court to issue an injunction preventing the new Proposition 50 maps from taking effect for the 2026 election while the court weighs the constitutional evidence.
The fight for fair and lawful representation is just beginning.
Defending Freedom through Justice.
Mark Meuser
The Constitution needs its advocate — and I choose to be one.