ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A federal trial, which is set to resume this week, could determine whether Governor Ron DeSantis’s redrawn congressional maps are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed by several civil rights groups, says the maps, drawn up last year and used in the mid-term elections, helped Republicans gain four seats in the state legislature.
“I cannot stress enough the importance of the outcome of the court challenges,” said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, speaking at Saturday’s Hillsborough NAACP Awards Dinner.
The NAACP and two other groups are suing over Gov. DeSantis’s congressional map which all but eliminated District 5 in North Florida, a seat held by Rep. Al Lawson, a black congressman.
“The governor was very clear that he was doing this to set up a challenge with the federal Voting Rights Act,” Driskell said. “That the federal Voting Rights Act and its plain text is unconstitutional. So, we know that that is a strategy.”
Gov. DeSantis correctly predicted his map would bring lawsuits.
Plaintiffs argue he bullied state lawmakers, calling their original map dead on arrival. The governor in fact vetoed that map and then presented his own, which republican lawmakers passed.
The changes divided District 2 and all but eliminate District 5.
“We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based on the color of their skin,” DeSantis said at the time. “That’s wrong - that is not the way that we’ve governed in the state of Florida.”
“His strategy is to invalidate the very law that gave black people the right to vote here in this country,” said Driskell. “And we know that when you take care of the black community, that’s the rising tide that lifts all boats. So, I’m very concerned about what the governor did in the redistricting process and that’s why these lawsuits are so important.”
The federal trial is separate from another legal challenge working its way through the state courts.
Last month, a state judge ruled that the map was unconstitutional and sent it back to the Florida Legislature to be redrawn. That decision, however, is being appealed.