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Attorneys for the Florida House argue it’s impossible to comply with the Fair Districts amendment (FDA) and draw a legal map.
In a legal brief filed in the Florida Supreme Court, attorneys for the House argue against attempts by voting rights groups to put a new congressional map on hold for the Midterms. But in making the case against an injunction, attorneys go farther and suggest to state justices an amendment to Florida’s constitution approved by voters in 2010 no longer aligns with a federal ruling raising the threshold for lines drawn with race as a motivating factor.
“The FDA’s express racial classifications treat people of different races differently. They enshrine permanent racial preferences in the Florida Constitution,” reads a brief by attorney Andy Bardos, counsel for the Florida House.
“They compel the Legislature, at each redistricting, to design districts that members of certain races will control. They confer on some voters — based solely on their race — a constitutional entitlement to a district designed to elect candidates whom their racial group supports.”
Should justices toss the amendment, that likely has ramifications beyond the congressional map, and would open the state to mid-decade redistricting of state House and Senate political boundaries.
The Fair Districts Amendment also includes a prohibition on partisan gerrymandering. Plaintiffs led by the Equal Ground Education Fund argues a map designed by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office clearly violates that, saying map makers admitted to using partisan data before releasing a map first to Fox News with districts colored to show how they performed in the 2024 presidential election.
Attorneys for DeSantis’ office already argued the Fair Districts Amendment need not be considered, as a Florida Supreme Court decision last year undermined its racial provisions. The amendment bars diminishment of minority communities’ ability to elect a U.S. Representative of their choice.
A Leon County Circuit Judge, one appointed by DeSantis, already ruled against plaintiffs’ request for an injunction, based partly on doubts about the current map raised by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Louisiana v. Callais decision handed down the day lawmakers approved new maps.
Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes declined to consider if the map violated a prohibition on partisan mapmaking, but said DeSantis had the right to deem the prior congressional map in place before the Callais ruling was unconstitutional.
Now Florida House attorneys assert that makes the entire Fair Districts amendment unconstitutional, and that racial elements cannot be severed from restrictions on partisanship.
A brief filed by Democratic attorney Marc Elias’ firm on behalf of plaintiffs said that argument isn’t sensible, and that if justices have any questions, those should be determined after the Midterms. Indeed, it notes no court opinion, including the one from Hawkes, had found “racial defects” in the map in place since 2022.
Of note, that was also designed by DeSantis’ office and signed by the current Governor.
Regardless, plaintiffs say Hawkes erred by leaving the map in place.
“The 2022 map, which has been used for multiple elections and which Defendants successfully defended in both state and federal court, is presumed to be constitutional, and Defendants have failed to carry their burden of proving otherwise,” the plaintiff’s brief reads.
It also said no court had determined the Callais ruling had any impact on the Fair Districts amendment, and state justices should not toss the 16-year-old constitutional amendment now.
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