Florida court – A Florida judge is set to hear arguments Friday over whether newly drawn U.S. House districts—signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis—violate the state’s constitutional ban on partisan gerrymandering. Voter lawsuits seek to block the map from being used in the No
A Florida court will take its first look Friday at newly drawn U.S. House districts that could tilt additional seats toward Republicans, a setup that voters and advocates say risks breaking the state’s ban on partisan gerrymandering.
The new districts are headed into court after lawsuits filed on behalf of voters ask a state judge to block the map from being used in the midterm elections.. The timing creates a fresh hurdle for President Donald Trump’s effort to hold a narrow House majority as Republicans press forward with district lines drawn to the party’s advantage.
Republicans already hold 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S.. House seats.. The new voting districts were signed into law by Republican Gov.. Ron DeSantis after a swift two-day special legislative session.. The change. approved by the Florida Legislature on April 29. could improve the GOP’s prospects to win four additional seats in the November elections.
The challenge lands in a moment of growing legal friction over redistricting nationwide.. Florida’s approval of the new House map came the same day the U.S.. Supreme Court weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities while striking down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana.. Since then, several Southern states have taken steps to try to eliminate minority districts that have elected Democrats.
The disputes over district boundaries are not supposed to happen midstream—congressional districts are typically redrawn once a decade. after each census. to rebalance populations.. But Republicans say Trump urged mid-decade redistricting last year. and they believe the new lines could help them gain as many as 15 seats from new House maps in Texas. Missouri. North Carolina. Ohio. Florida. Tennessee and Alabama.. Democrats counter with a different expectation, saying they could gain six seats from new maps in California and Utah.
Florida’s court fight also mirrors a separate setback for Democrats in Virginia.. Democrats had counted on winning up to four additional seats in Virginia. but the Virginia Supreme Court last week struck down a Democratic redistricting plan approved by voters.. It ruled the legislature violated procedural requirements when placing it on the ballot.
At the center of Florida’s lawsuits is a 2010 state constitutional amendment voters approved that prohibits U.S.. House districts from being drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.. The amendment also bars districts from diminishing the ability of racial or language minorities to elect the representatives of their choice.. It requires districts to be compact and, where feasible, use existing political and geographic boundaries.
The lawsuits seek a temporary injunction against the new U.S. House map for violating that amendment, and they focus heavily on political favoritism. One of three lawsuits filed in Leon County argues, “The plan takes the state’s partisan skew to an unprecedented extreme.”
Florida’s Senate, in a legal brief supporting the map, argues that partisan intent has not been proven and says a temporary injunction is not appropriate before a fully developed trial.
DeSantis, meanwhile, anticipated an eventual weakening of Voting Rights Act protections for minority districts.. He called lawmakers into session before the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Louisiana case.. DeSantis’ office said the reshaping of a southeastern Florida district was created to help elect a Black representative in an attempt to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act.. The office also said no racial data was used to prepare the new map he presented to the Legislature.
In a memo to lawmakers. DeSantis’ General Counsel David Axelman asserted that Florida’s constitutional provision about racial redistricting violates the U.S.. Constitution.. Axelman argued that if one element is invalid, then the entire 2010 amendment is void, including provisions barring partisan gerrymandering.
The schedule and claims in Florida line up with the national timing: the Legislature approved Florida’s map on April 29. the same day the Supreme Court both weakened federal Voting Rights Act protections for minorities and struck down a majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana. and the Florida lawsuits then ask for a fast injunction against the new districts for allegedly violating the state’s partisan-gerrymandering ban.
As the court prepares to hear the dispute. the fight over how Florida drew its next congressional lines is quickly becoming more than a state political contest.. It is set against a backdrop where the Supreme Court said in 2019 it has no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. while still allowing partisan-gerrymandering claims to be decided in state courts under their own constitutions and laws—leaving Florida’s constitution as the battleground for whether these maps can be used in November.
Florida U.S. House map partisan gerrymandering Ron DeSantis Leon County Voting Rights Act Supreme Court midterm elections district lines federal and state courts