An appeals court Monday dismissed an attempt by the Florida House and Senate to shield current and former lawmakers from testifying in lawsuits in a dispute stemming from a 2022 congressional redistricting plan.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal filed in November 2022 after Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh said he would allow some legislative leaders and staff members to be questioned as part of a lawsuit filed by voting-rights groups that challenged the constitutionality of the redistricting plan.

Monday’s decision, shared by Judges Brad Thomas, Susan Kelsey, and M. Kemmerly Thomas, did not explain the reasons for dismissal.

But during a hearing in September 2024, the voting-rights groups argued that they long ago dropped the idea of taking depositions of the current and former lawmakers and that the issue was moot.

Attorneys for the current and former lawmakers, however, hoped to ultimately use the appeal to get to the Florida Supreme Court and undo a 2013 Supreme Court decision that allowed testimony in certain circumstances. They argued that lawmakers were shielded from testifying by a concept known as “legislative privilege.”

Andy Bardos, an attorney for House members and staff, argued during the September hearing that the dispute was not moot because it involved an “issue of great public importance” that was likely to recur in the future. He said that rationale would allow the appeals court to decide the case even though the redistricting-testimony issue was moot.

“It’s likely to recur. We’ve seen time and time again, both in state and federal court, parties attempting to depose legislators, issuing deposition subpoenas, document subpoenas,” Bardos said.

But Kelsey questioned Bardos on the mootness issue.

“Big important issues, got it,” Kelsey said during the hearing. “But not this case, maybe. How do you overcome the mootness problem?”

A coalition of groups, such as the League of Women Voters of Florida and Equal Ground Education Fund, and individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of the congressional redistricting plan, which Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature. They contended the plan violated a 2010 constitutional amendment, known as the Fair Districts Amendment, that set redistricting standards, including a standard that said plans could not “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

The 1st District Court of Appeal in December 2023 upheld the constitutionality of the redistricting plan, and the Supreme Court heard arguments in August in an appeal by the voting-rights groups. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the plan.

As part of the underlying lawsuit, the voting-rights groups in 2022 sought depositions from six current and former lawmakers and five current and former staff members. The Legislature fought the depositions, but Marsh said he would allow the lawmakers and staff members to be questioned, with some limits.

Marsh cited the 2013 Supreme Court precedent.

“The appropriate line in this case is where the doors to the House and Senate meet the outside world,” Marsh wrote. “Accordingly, each legislator and legislative staff member may be questioned regarding any matter already part of the public record and information received from anyone not elected to the Legislature, their direct staff members or the staff of the legislative bodies themselves. They may not be questioned as to information internal to each legislative body that is not already public record (e.g., their thoughts or opinions or those of other legislators).”

After the legislative attorneys appealed Marsh’s ruling, the voting-rights groups said in December 2022 court filings that they would not continue to pursue the depositions and that the issue was moot.

The current and former lawmakers involved in the dispute are former House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor; former Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero; former Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach; Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island; Sen. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach; and Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island. Each had a leadership role in the 2022 redistricting process, with Leek a House member at the time.