State Senator Kelly Stargill looks at redistricting maps during a Senate Committee on Redistricting hearing on January 13, 2022 in Tallahassee, Fla. A redistricting plan by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution, a state judge ruled Saturday.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
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Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
State Senator Kelly Stargill looks at redistricting maps during a Senate Committee on Redistricting hearing on January 13, 2022 in Tallahassee, Fla. A redistricting plan by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the state constitution, a state judge ruled Saturday.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida redistricting plan violates the state constitution and is barred from being used in any future U.S. congressional elections because it would affect black voters in North Florida. The ability to elect a representative of choice is diminished, a state judge ruled. Saturday.
Circuit Judge Jay Lee Marsh sent the plan back to the Florida Legislature with instructions that lawmakers draw a new congressional map that conforms to the Florida Constitution.
Voting rights groups that challenged the plan in court, Marsh wrote, “have shown that the enacted plan violates the Florida Constitution by restricting the ability of black voters to choose the candidate of their choice.” reduces.”
The latest was the decision to scrap new congressional maps in southern states over concerns that they reduced black voting power.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Republican-drafted map in Alabama, with two conservative justices joining liberals in rejecting an effort to weaken the landmark voting rights law. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court lifted its hold on a Louisiana political remap case, raising the possibility that the Republican-majority state would have to redraw boundary lines to create a second majority-black congressional district. will
In each case, Republicans have either appealed or vowed to appeal the rulings because they could benefit Democratic congressional candidates facing the 2024 races. The Florida case is likely to end up before the Florida Supreme Court.
Every 10 years — after a decennial census — lawmakers in all 50 states, including Florida, redraw political boundaries.
DeSantis, who is the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, is expected to carry his district primarily to Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, who is black, and a large number of black voters to conservative white Republicans. He was criticized for being removed from office by dividing it into favored districts. .
In an unprecedented move, DeSantis intervened in the redistricting process last year by vetoing the Republican-dominated Legislature’s map that preserved Lawson’s district. He called a special session, presented his map and demanded that lawmakers accept it.
In their lawsuit, voting rights groups claimed the redrawn congressional map violated state and federal voting rights for black voters.
Florida’s population of 22.2 million is 17% black. Under the new maps, an area stretching about 360 miles (579 km) from the Alabama border to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Georgia border to Orlando in central Florida is represented by only white members of Congress.
A Florida judge rejected defense arguments by Republican lawmakers that the state’s provision against diluting or eliminating minority-majority districts violates the U.S. Constitution.
Marsh wrote: “The court finds that the defendants have not met their burden in this case.”
