The lawsuit alleges, in part, that redistricting in 2022 violated the 2010 “Fair Districts” constitutional amendment because it diminishes the voting power of Black residents in North Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and the Legislature argue the U.S. Constitution trumps that part of the state amendment.
FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — When Florida voters in 2010 passed a constitutional amendment setting rules for congressional redistricting, they barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”
A Leon County circuit judge will hold a hearing next week on whether attorneys for Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the Legislature should be able to make the argument in a lawsuit challenging a redistricting plan that DeSantis pushed through last year.The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of voting-rights groups and individual plaintiffs, focuses heavily on Congressional District 5, which in the past sprawled across North Florida and helped elect Black Democrat Al Lawson.
But attorneys for the state contend that applying the Fair Districts amendment’s so-called “non-diminishment” standard to Congressional District 5 would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. That mirrors a DeSantis administration position last year that the Equal Protection Clause prevented the Legislature from using race as a “predominant factor” in drawing the district.
But in the lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ attorneys blasted arguments by DeSantis, who vetoed an initial congressional redistricting plan last year. The Republican-controlled Legislature then passed the DeSantis-backed plan.
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