As predicted, a lawsuit has been filed against the Florida congressional redistricting map signed into law Monday by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Equal Ground Education Fund, a Black-led organization that works to increase Black political power in Florida, filed a 71-page lawsuit in the Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County on behalf of 18 individual plaintiffs who live throughout the state. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to stop the new map from going into effect.
The map, created by DeSantis’ office and approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature last week, is expected to give Republicans as many as four new seats to add to the 20 out of 28 seats they already represent in Florida.
“The 2026 Plan is, by traditional measures of partisan gerrymandering, one of the most extreme gerrymanders in American history,” the complaint declares.
The lawsuit says that the GOP-controlled Legislature approved and DeSantis signed into law a map that violates the 2010 Fair Districts Amendments, which prohibits drawing congressional (and state legislative) districts that favor incumbents or a political party.
The lawsuit notes that Jason Poreda, the governor’s map drawer, admitted when speaking before the Legislature last week that he used partisan data. Additionally, Mo Jazil, the governor’s attorney, and David Axelman, the governor’s general counsel, confirmed before the Legislature that the map’s legal justification depends on the Florida Supreme Court striking down Fair Districts in their entirety.
Both attorneys said last week that they believe the Fair Districts ban on drawing districts to diminish racial or language minorities’ ability to elect representatives of their choice violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and thus is unenforceable. They also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais case last week confirms their premise.
“[M]ost remarkably, having argued that the Fair Districts Amendment’s race-related protections are unconstitutional, Axelman argued that the entire Fair Districts Amendment must fall with them, including the Amendment’s prohibition on partisan gerrymandering and Tier II requirements to draw compact districts and to use political and geographic boundaries where feasible,” the lawsuit says.
“That conclusion is not only legally baseless, it is transparently convenient, as it would free the Legislature to engage in precisely the kind of partisan gamesmanship that Florida voters amended their Constitution to prohibit.”
The lead law firm working for the plaintiffs is the Elias Law Group, a Washington firm that has previously handled much of the Democratic Party’s redistricting litigation.
‘Carving up the state’
The lawsuit notes that Jazil acknowledged that DeSantis’ nonseverability argument — that the entirety of Fair Districts would be unenforceable, including its ban on partisan gerrymandering, if it’s race-related provisions are unconstitutional — “is the Governor’s own legal theory, not a conclusion any court has reached. Nor is it a conclusion that the Florida Supreme Court is likely to reach.”
Regarding that nonseverability argument, the lawsuit notes that veteran Republican Sen. Don Gaetz does not agree. Speaking on the floor of the Senate last week as he presented the bill, Gaetz said, “I believe that the rest of the Fair Districts Amendment could and should and ought to stand. I don’t think we should do gerrymandering on the basis of political partisanship. … I believe that we should be required to follow all of the other demands of the Fair Districts Amendment.”
The suit says the new map “radically reshapes” Florida’s congressional lines, “carving up the State to the benefit of the Republican Party.”
It notes the plan splits the heavily Democratic city of Tampa into three separate districts, none of which contains a majority of Tampa’s population, pairing them with “faraway, rural voters.” And it says that the plan splits the Democratic-leaning population of Orlando five ways, “even though it only has the population for two congressional districts.”
In South Florida, the lawsuit says, the way the map carves up voters to make it harder for Democrats to win “is nothing less than shocking.”
And it says that in North Florida, no changes have been made whatsoever — specifically congressional districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 — all of which have reliably elected Republicans.
That’s despite the fact that “they have some of the fastest growing populations including in St. John’s County (CDs 5 and 6) and Flagler County (CD 6) both of which the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research reports have grown by more than 20% since 2020, which is, of course, one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ main purported justification for the need to redraw districts.”
“The question is not whether this map is a partisan gerrymander, because it is,” said Elias Law Group Partner Abha Khanna in a statement. “The question is why Governor DeSantis and Florida Republicans think they can blatantly ignore the Florida Constitution and the instructions of their own voters.”
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the Florida Senate and Florida House are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
This says
We just took your lead, perfected it and ran with it.
Womp says
Okay brainiac, Texas started it with their illegal gerrymander. At least CA and VA had the decency to ask voters, who approved their gerrymander resolutions. Your team can’t win on issues because they have no solutions. They can only win by doing power grabs.
How do you even see the light of day being crammed so far up the lying ped0 party’s keister? You must be one of those people that get excited when they grab a brown person who is here legally doing their required check-in, and deport them to a country they’ve never been to. You get a tingle when rights are taken away from women and minorities. You explode when they drop bombs on fishing boats and Palestinians and Iranians. Do Hillary, Obama, and Biden still live rent-free in your head? Bet you think it’s ‘Murican to pay more for things. People like you are so brainwashed. Do you need Daddy Trump to tell you what to do? That’s some weird kink. Lol. I’m so glad I’m woke AF and didn’t drink the kool-aid. Oh and BTW, I’m a Republican, and I’m against all this gerrymandering, culture war, Iran war, ballroom, arch, and on and on nonsense crap. I want intelligent adults back in charge not whatever clown show we have now.
PaulT says
Is this simplistic comment really the Republcan view of all things? That ‘You did it first’ or ‘It’s all Biden’s fault’. How childish can you get!
This is a case of recent political gerrymandering, the process was initiated by Donald Trump and taken up by the Texas legislature. Florida is the latest battle in the current ‘redistricting war’, DeSantis’ problem is that his map is so blatantly illegal.
Article III of the Florida Constitution is clear:
“SECTION 20. Standards for establishing congressional district boundaries.—In establishing congressional district boundaries:
(a) No apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party ….
or an incumbent; and districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice; and districts shall consist of contiguous territory.
(b) Unless compliance with the standards in this subsection conflicts with the standards in subsection 1(a) or with federal law, districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable; districts shall be compact; and districts shall, where feasible, utilize existing political and geographical boundaries.”
Section 20 was the result of a constitutional amendment proposal ,on ‘Fair Districts’, passed in 2010 by a 63% majority of Florida voters, DeSantis is ignoring it.
Even if the recent SCOTUS decision on the Louisiana districting nullifies the rightss of ‘racial or language minorities’, Ron’s hlatan political redistricting in favor of one party is still in breach of Florida’s Constitution.
And DeSantis cant just override this, a change to the constitution need to be confirmeded by more than 60% of the Florida electorate AFTER 60% of the legislature votes in favor of it.
The big question is can we trust the Florida Supreme Court (which was handpicked by DeSantis). Because that’s where this will end up.
Koyote says
@PaulT :
“The big question is can we trust the Florida Supreme Court (which was handpicked by DeSantis). Because that’s where this will end up”
Quick answer … NO!
tulip says
this whole redistricting thing is strictly political so that one party can almost be assured of winning. This is not fair. What’s the point of voting if everything is rigged to largely favor one particular party. What a corrupt country and a corrupt governor we have to deal with. Why not get rid of the electoral college and just have the candidate that gets the most votes win. Get rid of gerrymandering also. Also why not put a cap on how much a candidate can collect in donations and pacs? That way perhaps candidates will spend the money more wisely rather than squander it on expensive restaurants ad 5 star hotels and other things
D says
It’s funny, gerrymandering was done in the New England states years ago. Not 1 Republican congressman in those six states. It seems it’s only ok if Democrats do it. All states should draw fair maps.
Koyote says
https://www.history.com/articles/gerrymandering-origins-voting
“The practice of manipulating voting districts to secure political power predates the fearsome Gerry-mander. In 18th-century England, political operatives created “rotten boroughs” with only a few eligible voters, making it easy for politicians to buy the residents’ votes and gain seats in Parliament.
After English colonists founded the United States, gerrymandering “began almost immediately,” says Thomas Hunter, a political science professor at the University of West Georgia. There’s evidence that Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina drew districts to benefit some candidates over others in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Still, these gerrymandered districts were relatively “normal”-looking compared to what would come later.
“I think that what they did in Massachusetts in 1812 really was on steroids compared to what had gone on before,” Hunter says.
That’s because the 1812 Massachusetts gerrymandering was more brazen about contorting districts into odd shapes to maximize a party’s gain. Even though the Jeffersonian Republicans received roughly 49 percent of the vote, they won 29 of the 40 seats in the state Senate.
This led to a backlash against the state’s Jeffersonian Republican Party (not to confused with the Republican Party, established in 1854). The next year, the Federalists regained control of the state legislature. Ironically, it was the Jeffersonian Republicans’ thinly-drawn districts that allowed the party to lose them with only a small shift in political opinion. Once in power, the Federalists redrew the districts.”
A few moments with the internet search engines can prevent embarrassing vocal diarrhea.
James says
Republicans, just a bunch of common thiefs.
Just my opinion.
joe says
The Republican rush to re-apportion (even after some votes have already been cast) makes it clear that they aren’t even trying to hide the racism any more.
voter says
This sure looks like cheating in everyway. And what some will do to try and get a job in Washington.
Atwp says
Votes were cast for the Republicans and this is what we got. Just perhaps more Democrats will vote during the midterms. I’m sure gonna vote. I’m voting Democratic. As much as I dislike white folks I will vote for a white Democrat before I vote for an African American Republican. That shows how much I dislike the Republican Party.
tulip says
well, not only is Trump encouraging the GOP to re do the maps, he now wants the GOP to to give him one Billion dollars for the ballroom!!!!what happened to the “private donors” that were giving him 4 million to build the ballroom. Congress does nothing but give T what he wants and this latest request is horrific! This country is on a down hill slide
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
If you’re going to be effectively disenfranchised by the state then what allegiance do you owe it? No taxation without representation.