A Leon County judge has dismissed top Florida legislative leaders, including House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson, as defendants in a lawsuit challenging the state’s congressional redistricting map.

Judge J. Lee Marsh dismissed claims against Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor), Simpson (R-Trilby), Senate Reapportionment Committee Chairman Ray Rodrigues (R-Estero) and House Reapportionment Committee Chairman Thomas Leek (R-Ormond Beach). Marsh’s July 17 decision concluded that the lawmakers were not proper parties in the lawsuit brought by the Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, League of Women Voters of Florida and other groups because they have immunity from lawsuits that focus on their legislative duties.

Attorneys for the defendants in the case, which seeks to overturn the redistricting map because it wipes out a Black-majority congressional district in the northern part of the state, argued that naming the legislative leaders as defendants was redundant because the Florida House of Representatives and the state Senate are named separately.