A Florida appeals court has overturned a circuit court judge's ruling from August, which found that the state's congressional map violated the state constitution. The decision is a decisive victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-dominated state legislature.
The plaintiffs have appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, but its conservative bent makes it unlikely the appeal will succeed. (RELATED: Arguments Heard By Wisconsin Supreme Court In Redistricting Case)
Following Friday's expulsion of George Santos, Republicans have a perilous three-vote majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Pundits credit DeSantis' aggressive push for Florida's new map with ensuring a narrow GOP majority.
Politico reports:
The map pushed by the governor dismantled the North Florida seat of former Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat, and resulted in Republicans gaining four seats that helped the GOP flip the U.S. House during the 2022 midterm elections.
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Initially, both sides wanted the case to be decided by the state's highest court ahead of the 2024 legislative session that starts in January and asked that the legal challenge be fast-tracked. But instead, in an unusual move, the entire 1st District Court of Appeals took up the appeal, which slowed down the resolution of the legal clash between the GOP-controlled Legislature, DeSantis and voting rights and civil rights groups that sued the state over the maps.
Judge J. Lee Marsh in August had found that the map's elimination of the seat held by Lawson diminished the ability of minority voters to elect a candidate of their choice, as outlined in voter-approved standards known as Fair Districts. In his ruling, Marsh cited what he called the “precedent” of the previous Florida Supreme Court decision that created Congressional District 5, which stretched from Jacksonville to just west of Tallahassee.
But on Friday, the appeals court, by a 8-2 vote, rejected that logic and contended that the judges were not bound by the previous state Supreme Court decision. The judges also asserted that not enough was done to demonstrate that Lawson's 160-mile long district was truly harmed by the new map.
Federal courts recently struck down Georgia and Alabama's maps, ruling that the Republican-controlled legislatures in both states improperly diluted the power of Black voters.
In October, a federal court ordered Alabama to implement a new congressional map drawn by a court-appointed special master with one majority-Black district and one near majority-Black district. (RELATED: Federal Judge Rules Rachel Levine's Emails Must Be Exposed In Alabama's Sex Change Ban)
In neighboring Georgia, the state senate submitted a revised congressional map on Friday, which creates a new majority-Black district near Atlanta but preserves the state's 9-5 GOP edge.
The general assembly must draw a new map that doesn't violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by Dec. 8. Should it fail to do so, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones will order the creation of a remedial map.
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