Navigation Federal court allows lawsuit challenging Florida congressional redistricting map to advance
A lawsuit challenging the Florida congressional redistricting map that helped Republicans gain four additional U.S. House seats in the November election will advance to the discovery phase as a result of a recent federal court decision.
A three-judge panel in the Northern District of Florida on Nov. 8 declined to dismiss the complaint filed by Common Cause Florida and several other groups and individuals. The voting-rights lawsuit argues that the new map, which reduced the number of Black-led districts from four to two, dilutes the voting power of minorities in violation of the 14th and 15 Amendments.
Attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd, the defendants, had urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis that the plaintiff organizations and several of the individual plaintiffs lacked standing. But the Northern District of Florida’s order said two of the individual plaintiffs had standing, and that was adequate for the case to advance.
