A Leon County circuit judge has rejected the congressional redistricting map passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, concluding that the plan violates the Fair Districts amendment to the state constitution.
Judge J. Layne Smith issued the temporary injunction against the congressional map on May 12, siding with voting rights groups’ arguments that an alternative map maintaining the number of majority-minority districts in the state should be used in this year’s elections.
The state Secretary of State’s Office immediately appealed the ruling to the First District Court of Appeal, triggering an automatic stay on the circuit court’s injunction. This week, however, Smith overturned that stay, citing the harm that would occur if the elections were to be held using the approved map.
“The court finds overwhelmingly compelling circumstances against maintaining the stay in this action,” Smith said in his order on Monday. “At the temporary injunction hearing, the court determined that the enacted plan violates the Fair Districts amendment of the Florida Constitution by diminishing the ability of Black voters to elect the representative of their choice.”
The specifics of the case argue overwhelmingly against maintaining the automatic stay, he said.
“Maintaining the stay and failing to quickly determine this case on the merits will force plaintiffs and many North Florida voters to cast their votes according to an unconstitutional congressional district map,” the opinion states.
The Governor’s Office minimized the impact of Smith’s decision in the ongoing redistricting dispute and said the state remains confident in its legal arguments.
“As Judge Smith implied, these complex constitutional matters of law were always going to be decided at the appellate level,” Taryn Fenske, the governor’s communications director, said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “We will undoubtedly be appealing his ruling and are confident the constitutional map enacted by the Florida Legislature and signed into law passes legal muster.”
Groups such as the Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, League of Women Voters of Florida and Equal Ground Education Fund Inc. challenged the congressional map, noting that it obliterated the Black-majority Congressional District 5 in northern Florida.
The Fair Districts amendment, which Florida voters passed in 2010, states that no districts should be drawn that deny racial or language minorities a chance to elect a Congress member of their choice. Such districts must also be contiguous, compact, as equal in population as is feasible and take into account existing local government boundaries, the amendment says.