What happened

The Justice Department Thursday joined a federal lawsuit seeking to block California’s new congressional map, drawn by state Democrats to flip as many as five Republican-held House seats to counteract a gerrymander in Texas.

The lawsuit “sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight” between President Donald Trump, who sparked the unusual redistricting battle, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a “likely 2028 presidential contender,” said The Associated Press .

Who said what

Federal courts are “prohibited from policing partisan gerrymandering following a sweeping 2019 Supreme Court ruling,” Politico said, so DOJ officials argued that California’s map “violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and the Voting Rights Act by factoring in

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