Judge throws out Issa's Prop 50 lawsuit
A Texas federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, and Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, that sought to challenge California’s efforts to redraw its congressional maps.
The suit sought a judge’s ruling blocking implementation of the new maps should voters approve them next week and a requirement that California use its current map for the 2026 congressional elections.
Prop 50
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in the Northern District of Texas alleged Proposition 50, which goes before California voters in a special election on Tuesday, is unconstitutional and “an unprecedented interstate assault on representative democracy.”
The suit sought a judge’s ruling blocking implementation of the new maps should voters approve them this week and a requirement that California use its current map for the 2026 congressional elections.
But in a written ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk wrote that neither congressman sufficiently showed that they faced harm if the new maps were implemented.
The complaint claims Issa specifically will be harmed both as a congressman and as a California voter. Issa claimed in a declaration that if Democrats gain House control, he will lose “seniority advantages in committee proceedings” and have “reduced influence over legislative priorities and committee work affecting my constituents,” which he alleges will negatively affect veterans and immigrant communities within his district.
The complaint alleged Jackson “will lose specific, concrete resources and authority necessary to serve his constituents because California’s scheme will succeed in flipping House control.”
Kacsmaryk wrote that lawmakers “may not sue in their representative capacity when the asserted harm amounts only to “a loss of political power, not loss of any private right.”
Regarding Issa’s status as a voter, Kacsmaryk wrote that “having one’s district politically gerrymandered does not constitute a justiciable injury.”
Kacsmaryk also wrote that even if the congressmen had standing to sue, it was not proper to file the lawsuit in Texas as the defendants — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Secretary of State Shirley Weber — are California residents.
California’s redistricting proposal was a direct response to similar efforts in Texas aimed at shifting five additional seats to Republicans. A ruling is expected sometime next month to a separate legal challenge from the Texas NAACP to block Texas’ new congressional map.
Kacsmaryk was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017 and sworn in in 2019.
