Lawyers representing Black voters told a three-judge federal panel that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the U.S. Constitution by deliberately dismantling a congressional district that favored Black candidates.
Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ruled in September that the overhaul of Congressional District 5 violated a 2010 state constitutional amendment that barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”
“The governor pushed and pushed and pushed,” said attorney Greg Baker. “He pressed his argument by sound bite bullying.” In an 86-page brief, filed last week with the 1st District Court of Appeal, attorneys for the plaintiffs pointed to a 2015 Florida Supreme Court precedent that they said proved last year’s plan violated what is known as the “non-diminishment” standard in the state Constitution.
But in a brief filed early this month at the Tallahassee-based appeals court, attorneys for Secretary of State Cord Byrd contended that designing a district to help elect a Black candidate would be a racial gerrymander that would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Under procedural rules, the state’s appeal triggered an automatic stay of Marsh’s Sept. 2 decision while the case continues to play out.
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