Tallahassee - Friday April 22, 2022: The League of Women Voters of Florida, and other voter rights groups, have filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s new congressional map. Among those who joined in the lawsuit are: Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute Inc., the Equal Ground Education Fund, Florida Rising Together, and several others.
In a news release League President Cecile Scoon said - “The League and the other plaintiffs have chosen to not stand by while a rogue governor and a complicit state Legislature make a mockery of Florida’s Constitution and try to silence the votes and voices of hundreds of thousands of Black voters.”
The complaint was filed in state court in Tallahassee on Friday, one day after the Florida Legislature gave final approval to the Governor's revised district map. The Governor signed the measure into law Friday.
The League and the other plaintiffs argue the congressional map was not drawn in compliance with the Florida laws that govern redistricting.
Specifically the lawsuit claims:
• The map violates a 2010 “Fair Districts” amendment to the Florida Constitution. Amendment 6, which was approved by 63 percent of Florida’s voters, prohibits diluting the opportunity to elect racial and language minorities to Congress. The Amendment also prohibits the diminishment of racial or language minority congressional districts regardless of the intent of the map drawers. The governor’s map violates the Fair Districts Amendment as it cuts Black districts from four to two.
• 2010’s Amendment 6 also prohibits gerrymandering districts to favor a political party, which is exactly what this new map does by giving a particular party an advantage in 20 of the state’s 28 congressional districts.