TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A new agreement is bringing new hope for voting rights groups fighting to bring back a North Florida congressional district, once held by ex-Democratic Congressman Al Lawson.
After the redistricting process in 2022, congressional district maps put forth and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis were met with legal challenges.
In one lawsuit, groups claim the removal of the then-5th Congressional District spanning north Florida from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, violated the 2010 Fair Maps amendment to the state constitution, which barred drawing districts that would “diminish the ability” of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”
“They should be able to elect the candidate of their choice, not be told what candidate will represent them in the districts where they live at,” says Jasmine Burney-Clark, the founder and executive director of the Equal Ground Education Fund, who’s a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
According to those that filed the lawsuit, the new agreement reached this past weekend, strengthens their case to bring the district back and they say it’s also a major step forward for Black voters in Florida.
The agreement narrows the scope of the lawsuit to just North Florida and in it, the state acknowledges that if the standards of the state amendment apply there, “then there is no Black-performing district in North Florida under the enacted map.”
The lawsuit defines a “Black-performing district” as a district in which Black voters have an “ability to elect representatives of their choice.”
“What we are seeing under this admission is that Black folks did not get the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice in the 2022 election, and we are working towards a path of remedial options,” Burney-Clark responded
Though the state maintains the “equal protection clause” of the U.S. Constitution would prohibit the creation of a Black-performing district, which is similar to the DeSantis administration's reasoning for getting rid of the district.
What happens next will be decided at a hearing next week. If the lawsuit prevails, Florida legislators would have to draw a new map to include the North Florida district ahead of the 2024 election.
“Whenever you redraw lines, there's always going to be a trickle down throughout the state,” says 10 Tampa Bay Political Analyst Lars Hafner.
That may mean just minimal changes to other districts impacted by the governor’s approved maps, like the Pinellas County-based seat, which after being redrawn flipped Republican.
“It just depends on how they want to draw it, but they have now a 2022 election that congressional districts have gone through to see the numbers and be able to tweak it more in favor of Republicans than what they would have been able to see back in 2020,” Hafner added.
Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh was scheduled to start a trial in the case on Aug. 21, but the agreement filed would bypass the need for the trial, proposing holding arguments on Aug. 24.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.