A state judge in Leon County will soon issue a ruling on whether to block Florida’s congressional map after hearing final arguments in the case on Thursday.
“I feel pretty confident about where we’re headed, but I can’t rest on the belief that it will go in our direction — anything is possible," said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground Education Fund, one of the plaintiffs challenging the map. "The judge is going to take the time to review what’s been set in front of him and make the best decision.”
Several voting rights groups and voters are suing in state court to have the state's congressional map struck down and replaced with one that restores an African American-performing district in North Florida.
Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis' office drafted a map that removed the only district in the region where Black voters could elect their candidate of choice. DeSantis then vetoed two bipartisan maps that the legislature passed at the end of the regular session and called state lawmakers back to Tallahassee to pass his map.
Both of the legislature's vetoed maps attempted to keep an African American-performing district in North Florida.
"The legislature was on course to pass a map that was constitutional, and then all of the sudden, the governor vetos, intervenes and presents a map that's 'take it or leave it,'" said Nicholas Warren, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "They, of course, did what the governor asked them to do."
The state constitution's Fair Districts Amendments — which were approved by 63% of voters in 2010 — prohibit diminishing a minority group's ability to elect their candidate of choice. While crafting the maps, lawmakers publicly acknowledged that they must keep minority voting districts intact in the state legislative maps (which do not require DeSantis' signature) and the congressional map.
Attorneys representing the state have acknowledged that the congressional map violates the state constitution. "It's a really remarkable admission," Warren said. "Their main argument to the judge is that they're allowed to violate the Fair Districts Amendments."
Attorneys for the state claim that the legislature had no choice but to violate the state constitution.
Attorneys for the legislature argue that lawmakers would've violated the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, which prohibits states from denying residents equal protection of the laws, if they had preserved a Black-performing district in North Florida.
They argue that there's no way to draw the district without making race the predominant factor in configuring the lines.
The Florida Supreme Court approved the former District 5 — which connected Tallahassee and Jacksonville — in 2015 as constitutional.
Attorneys for the state say the configuration is the only way to create a district in North Florida where Black voters make up 46% or more of the constituency, and that results in a district with relatively low compactness.
Plaintiffs' attorneys presented the legislature's version of the district and demonstrated that other mandatory redistricting factors, such as following natural and political boundaries and keeping cities and counties intact, were taken into account.
“This legislature actually put forth the map that was compliant, and our governor decided to veto that map and create one that only benefited him and his party politically,” said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground Education Fund, one of the voting rights groups suing in state court.
The district that plaintiffs say they would like to see enacted is nearly identical to the former Congressional District 5 (CD5) — which stretched from Gadsden County, the state's only county with a majority African American population, to eastern Duval County, picking up Black voters in Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
One of two maps proposed by the legislature last spring contained a slightly more compact version of the original CD5, with smoother lines in Tallahassee and Jacksonville.
The former CD5 was held by Democratic Congressman Al Lawson, who lost his bid for reelection last year after he was forced to run in a newly-drawn Republican district. "This is bigger than me," he said. "People who had the opportunity to elect a person of their choice do not have that anymore."
