TALLAHASSEE, FL — The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the state’s congressional maps. This follows a challenge to the former CD 5, a two-hundred-mile-long congressional district that includes several communities of Black voters spanning from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, claiming that under the new redistricting in 2022 (The Enacted Plan), black voters would not be able to elect a representative of their choice. In 2022, DeSantis had argued that his map is “race neutral,” but it was challenged by organizations, like Black Voters Matter, because they claimed the governor’s map goes against state gerrymandering law in regard to preserving a majority Black district.
According to an opinion released on Thursday, the plaintiffs, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute Inc., allege that the plan violates the Florida Constitution by failing to retain the congressional district from Jacksonville to Tallahassee. They're challenging the 2022 congressional districting plan under the Fair Districts Amendment.
The high court decided to uphold the current congressional districting plan, citing the federal Equal Protection Clause prohibits the racially gerrymandered district that the plaintiffs demand.
The 57-page opinion states that the plaintiffs didn't prove the possibility of complying with both the Non-Diminishment Clause and the Equal Protection Clause in North Florida. Therefore, they didn't meet their burden to prove the invalidity of the Enacted Plan.
Justices noted parties in this case decided to forgo a trial, stating they stipulated to facts necessary to apply the court's precedents interpreting the Fair Districts Amendment, and the litigation focused primarily on whether the Legislature could honor those precedents without running afoul of the Equal Protection Clause.
Justices Couriel, Grosshans, Francis, and Sasso voted in the majority. Justice Labarga dissented, and Justice Canady recused himself.
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