The Florida congressional map does not need to be redrew, according to a court ruling

 The Florida congressional map does not need to be redrew, according to a court ruling

The Florida congressional map does not need to be redrew, according to a court ruling

On appeal, the September ruling—which concluded that Republicans had reconfigured boundaries and discriminated against Black voters—was overturned.

Overturning a September decision that concluded Republicans were exempt from having to redrew congressional districts in the state's northern regions, a Florida appeal court said on Friday that legislators are not have to redrew the state's congressional boundaries. There was prejudice directed against voters of color.

The ruling by the First District Court of Appeal is the most recent move in a protracted legal dispute about the state's representation of Black people. The state Supreme Court prohibited black voters in a district extending from Jacksonville to Tallahassee's west from selecting the candidate of their choice in 2015. Voters in the 5th congressional district chose Black Democrat Al Lawson to represent them from 2015 until 2022. However, Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, made a concerted effort to dissolve the district in 2022 and divide it into four districts with a preponderance of white voters, all of whom supported Republican candidates for office.

Citing a clause in the state constitution that forbids the elimination of a district where voters of color may choose the candidate of their choice, a circuit court judge declared the district unconstitutional in September. On Friday, the 1st District overturned that ruling, stating that the opponents had not shown that black voters in the district as a whole were cohesive and supported the candidate of their choice.

In its opinion, the 8-2 majority stated that "Plaintiffs then failed to prove a suitable comparison or baseline against which to assess the alleged decline in voting power." "There was no evidence was basis for concluding that CD-5 reached voting power to the legally cognizable black community (as the constraints for this are set forth herein), which the defendant didn't have otherwise."

In order to have their case decided before the 2024 election, the parties intended to move it forward quickly to the Florida Supreme Court. But the whole First District chose to intervene and hear the case, which prolonged the proceedings.

Judge Ross Bilbrey said in a dissenting decision that the district had blatantly broken the Florida Constitution's non-diminishing test and that the justices ought to have let the state Supreme Court to step in right away.

A different federal lawsuit is also being filed challenging Florida's congressional layout.