Black districts restored when judge says DeSantis’ Congress map unconstitutional

Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith said the congressional map that lawmakers passed during a special session last month did not follow a voter-approved 2010 ballot initiative known as the “Fair Districts” amendment. DeSantis’ office drew up the map after the governor vetoed a plan passed in early March by the Legislature.

The lawsuit centers on Congressional District 5, which in recent years has sprawled more than 200 miles from Jacksonville to Tallahassee after being approved by the Florida Supreme Court. That district was designed to help elect a Black candidate and is held by U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat.

DeSantis’ plan completely revamped the district, putting it in the Jacksonville area. Voting-rights groups argued in the lawsuit that the plan violated part of the Fair Districts amendment that bars diminishing the ability of minority voters to “elect representatives of their choice.”

“My state Supreme Court has issued an opinion (in the past) finding that the benchmark Congressional District 5 met constitutional muster,” Smith said, referring to the sprawling shape of the district in recent years. “And this is after the Fair District amendment had been passed.”

The Supreme Court in 2015 approved the sprawling layout after finding the Legislature failed to follow the Fair Districts requirements in 2012.

Smith said he wasn’t going to order the Legislature back into session but would recommend a map proposal from this year’s regular legislative session that would affect the least number of counties and voting precincts.

Governor DeSantis’ proposed map submitted to the Florida Legislature.

Smith indicated he expects the Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal to act “swiftly” in the state’s appeal. Generally, circuit-court rulings are stayed when the state appeals.

“We need to get this right as soon as we can,” Smith said.

John Devaney, an attorney for the plaintiffs, which include the League of Women Voters of Florida, Equal Ground, Florida Rising and Black Lives Matter, argued it’s not too late to make alterations to the map before the Aug. 23 primary elections.