FILE -California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a session at the We Mean Business Pavilion during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)2025-12-15T13:58:28Z LOS ANGELES (AP) The fight over Californias new congressional map designed to help Democrats flip congressional House seats will go to court Monday as a panel of federal judges considers whether the district boundaries approved by voters last month can be used in elections. The hearing in Los Angeles sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Trump administration and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, whos been eyeing a 2028 presidential run. The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to grant a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19 the date candidates can take the first official steps to run in the 2026 election.Voters approved Californias new U.S. House map in November through Proposition 50. Its designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. It was Newsoms response to a Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump. The redistricting showdown between the nations two most populous states has spread nationally, with efforts aiming to determine which party controls Congress for the second half of Trumps term. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have adopted new district lines that could provide a partisan advantage. Some plans are facing legal challenges, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month to allow Texas to use its new map for the 2026 election. The Justice Department has only sued California. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The U.S. Justice Department, joining a case brought by the California Republican Party, has accused California of gerrymandering its map in violation of the Constitution by using race as a factor to favor Hispanic voters. Republicans want the court to prohibit California from using the new map. Voters approved the map for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. State Democrats said theyre confident the lawsuit will fail. In letting Texas use its gerrymandered maps, the Supreme Court noted that Californias maps, like Texass, were drawn for lawful reasons, Newsoms spokesperson Brandon Richards said in a statement. That should be the beginning and the end of this Republican effort to silence the voters of California. New U.S. House maps are drawn across the country after the Census every 10 years. Some states like California rely on an independent commission to draw maps, while others like Texas let politicians draw them. The effort to create new maps in the middle of the decade is highly unusual.Paul Mitchell, a redistricting consultant who drew the map for Democrats, is expected to offer testimony. The Justice Department alleges that Mitchell and state leaders admitted that they redrew some districts to have a Latino majority. The lawsuit cites a news release from state Democrats that says the new map retains and expands Voting Rights Act districts that empower Latino voters while making no changes to Black majority districts in the Oakland and Los Angeles areas. The federal Voting Rights Act, passed in the 1960s, sets rules for drawing districts to ensure minority groups have adequate political power. The lawsuit also cites a Cal Poly Pomona and Caltech study that concludes the new map would increase Latino voting power. Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50 the recent ballot initiative that junked Californias pre-existing electoral map in favor of a rush-job rejiggering of Californias congressional district lines, the lawsuit said.House Democrats need to gain just a handful of seats next year to take control of the chamber, which would imperil Trumps agenda for the remainder of his term and open the way for congressional investigations into his administration. Republicans hold 219 seats, to Democrats 214._____Nguyn reported from Sacramento. MICHAEL R. BLOOD Blood is a political writer for The AP. Over the years he has filed stories under datelines from Wasilla, Alaska, to Tel Aviv, but he has spent most of his career anchored in AP bureaus in Washington, D.C., New York City and - for the last two decades - Los Angeles. twitter mailto TRN NGUYN Nguyn is an Associated Press reporter covering California government and politics. mailto