A baldly hypocritical effort by the Republican Party to challenge Democrats' tit-for-tat gerrymander measure, Prop 50, has been shot down by a federal court, paving the way for California to redraw its congressional district maps as it sees fit.Governor Gavin Newsom was celebrating Wednesday after n ews came of a federal court ruling on the challenge to Prop 50. The court found that California Democrats' effort at a partisan gerrymander of the state's congressional district maps was, just like Texas Republicans' similar effort last year, constitutional and not racially biased.California Republicans had, one day after November's election, filed for a preliminary injunction to stop the ballot measure from taking effect, arguing that it was a racially motivated gerrymander.In a 2-1 decision, the judges said that Prop 50 could move forward, with US District Judge Josephine Staton writing for the majority that "the evidence presented reflects that Proposition 50 was exactly what it was billed as: a political gerrymander designed to flip five Republican-held seats to the Democrats."The judges cited the December ruling by the Supreme Court on the Texas matter, in which conservative justice Samuel Alito concluded, "the impetus for the adoption of the Texas map (like the map subsequently adopted in California) was partisan advantage pure and simple." Staton, an Obama appointee, was joined in the majority by US District Judge Wesley Hsu, a Biden appointee. In dissent on the three-judge panel was a Ninth Circuit judge appointed by Trump, Kenneth Lee, who argued that at least one SoCal district had been remapped "to prevent Latino voters from drifting away from the [Democratic] party."In a statement, Governor Gavin Newsom said, "Republicans’ weak attempt to silence voters failed. California voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 50 — to respond to Trump’s rigging in Texas — and that is exactly what this court concluded."Prop 50 passed with 64% of the vote in November, despite an aggressive and expensive TV ad campaign — that featured former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others — railing against the unfairness of gerrymandering writ large, and ignoring the fact that Prop 50 was designed to counter the equally unfair redistricting effort in Texas, at a time when holding a majority in the House could mean the difference between a completely emboldened and unstoppable Trump, and one who at least has a few obstacles in his way.Democrats currently hold a 43-9 district majority in California, and the new map would bring that to 48-4. The current map was created by a nonpartisan commission following the release of the 2020 census, and under Prop 50, the state will return to using the nonpartisan commission for congressional mapping after the results of the 2030 census come in.Previously: Republicans Sue to Try to Stop Prop 50 From Taking Effect ...read more read less