(KRON) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday responded with a simple social media message to a Republican lawsuit challenging Proposition 50: “Good luck, losers.”
The lawsuit was filed by the Dhillon Law Group, Assemblyman David Tangipa, 18 California voters, and the California Republican Party, according to a post on the party’s Facebook page. In a video posted to social media, Mike Colombo, a San Francisco lawyer with the Dhillon Law Group, said the map enacted by Prop 50’s passage was “unconstitutional.”
“The map is designed to favor one race of California voters over others. This violates the 14th amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law, and the right under the 15th amendment, to not have one’s vote abridged because of race,” Colombo argued. “When drawing the proposition 50 map the chief consultant who drew the map has stated that the first thing that he did was to increase the power of Latino voters.”
“Additionally, the state legislature has announced that the maps increase the power of Latino voters,” he continued.
In a statement posted to X, Newsom’s office was dismissive of the effort.
“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,” Newsom’s office said.
Harmeet Dhillon, founder of the law firm, is a former chair of the California Republican Party and currently serves as U.S. Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division under President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, California voters overwhelming passed Proposition 50, a statewide redistricting measure that lays the groundwork for Democrats to pick up five additional House seats. The measure was drawn up in response to similar redistricting efforts mounted by the GOP in Texas.
With about 75% of ballots tallied, 63% of voters were in favor of the measure’s passage.
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