On December 15, 2025, election law attorney Mark Meuser of Dhillon Law Group shared the photo below, of him standing outside a courtroom, and wrote: “The trial over whether Prop 50 is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander starts in 25 minutes.”
[Prop 50, an amendment to the California constitution was approved by 64.4% voters in a special election ballot on November 4, 2025. It redrew the state’s congressional districts, allowing a new map to be used for the 2026 U.S. House of Representatives elections and through to the 2030 elections.]
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel denied Meuser’s motion for a preliminary injunction on the Proposition 50 case. In a 2-1 decision, the panel rejected the racial aspect of the argument while acknowledging the political. District Judge Josephine Staton wrote concluded 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.”
Brandon Richards, a communications director for California Governor Gavin Newsom, who fought for Prop 50, resurfaced the photo this week and replied tauntingly, “How did you do Mark? Did you win??”
How did you do Mark? Did you win?? https://t.co/CCMSKCOLxH
— Brandon Richards
(@BrandonRichards) January 14, 2026
Meuser, who lost the 2022 California Senate election to Democrat Alex Padilla, reported: “Although the majority of the three-judge panel did not side with our challenge to the Proposition 50 map, we appreciate the thoughtful and timely work of all three judges. The well reasoned dissenting opinion better reflects our interpretation of the law and facts, which we will reassert to the Supreme Court.”
Note: The Dhillon Law Group was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, President Trump’s Assistant Attorney General leading the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.
At Dhillon Law, during the 2024 presidential election, Meuser “served as counsel to President Trump’s campaign in high-stakes 14th Amendment ballot access litigation filed across the nation, navigating complex constitutional questions to defend electoral integrity.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also commented on the ruling: “We disagree with yesterday’s 2-1 ruling on California’s redistricting map. California impermissibly drew its new congressional map based on race. That’s unconstitutional. We are reviewing all legal options.”