Voting rights groups this week are pressing the Florida Supreme Court to put the state’s newly drawn congressional map on hold until court proceedings on the map’s legality play out.
The Equal Ground Education Fund and other organizations filed a petition for an expedited decision on the redistricting issue last week. But in a reply filed on Monday, the state Attorney General’s Office argued that the new map does not represent a partisan gerrymander in violation of the Fair Districts Amendment (FDA) to the state constitution.
The new map, which passed the state Legislature and has been signed by the governor, carves out four additional districts favorable to Republican candidates. FDA bars the drafting of electoral maps favoring one particular party, mandates that districts be compact and relatively equal in population, and prohibits maps that reduce the voting power of minorities.
The latter provision’s legality is now under a cloud as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais opinion, which makes it more problematic to use racial data in the creation of electoral maps. But legal observers have argued the FDA’s wording on minority voting issues could be severed if deemed to violate federal law.
Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office, however, said in a reply to the plaintiffs’ arguments to pause the new map that the FDA is now invalid and cannot be salvaged.
“The FDA’s racial defects are fatal,” the state’s brief states. “… The race-based provisions were part of the deal. Take away those provisions and it is far from clear that voters – who only narrowly ratified the FDA – would still have supported it. The racial components are therefore inseverable from the rest of the FDA. Root and branch, the whole FDA is invalid.”
The plaintiffs argue that the court should require the state to retain its 2022 congressional map until the judicial branch resolves whether the new map is lawful based on the merits.
“Temporary relief preserving the 2022 plan is necessary and workable,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a court filing this week. “This court should not force Florida’s voters to cast ballots under a blatantly unconstitutional map while review proceeds. …”
In a statement emailed to the Florida Record, the Equal Ground Education Fund said it is not clear when the high court will make a decision, but the fund noted that the court’s deadlines for party responses on Monday were only five hours apart, suggesting the court is seeking a speedy resolution.
“Our hope is that the courts will rule at some point this week ahead of the qualifying deadline (for congressional candidates),” the statement says.
Equal Ground also said it is keeping its options open as the litigation advances.
“We will need to assess the outcome of (the state Supreme Court’s) decision to determine our next steps in the preliminary injunction,” the statement continues. “Our case beyond the preliminary injunction will move forward until we have reached the desired outcome.”
The Florida House of Representatives submitted a reply to the court this week, arguing that petitioners have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the case and that the court should reject their petition.
A Florida circuit judge last month denied the plaintiffs’ request to block the 2026 map for use in this year’s elections.
“Plaintiffs’ evidence at this stage is insufficient to support the permissibility of this court forcing the 2022 map onto the electorate in contravention of the duly enacted 2026 map,” Judge Joshua Hawkes of the Second Judicial District Court in Leon County said in a May 26 decision.