Citing time constraints for its 2023 municipal elections, Jacksonville is asking a federal court to stay an order that found the city’s new City Council and school board district maps are racially gerrymandered and must be redrawn by Nov. 8.

In an Oct. 19 motion in the Middle District of Florida, attorneys for the city asked for the stay on Judge Marcia Morales Howard’s decision earlier this month in the case of Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP v. City of Jacksonville. The NAACP argued that the approved district lines packed Black residents into four districts in an effort to minimize minority voting power.

In their argument, Jacksonville’s attorneys contend that a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving congressional redistricting, Merrill v. Milligan, could affect the Jacksonville litigation. In addition, the plaintiffs waited too long to file a legal complaint since the policy underlying the city’s redistricting process has been in place for decades, the motion states.