In a five-page letter requesting an advisory opinion, DeSantis requested Supreme Court docket justices whether or not or not Florida’s voter-approved redistricting requirements require the seat — which stretches throughout the northern border from simply west of Tallahassee to downtown Jacksonville — to stay as it’s presently drawn despite the fact that it’s not presently a majority Black district. The seat has almost 44 % Black voting age inhabitants.
“I ask whether or not the Florida Structure’s non-diminishment normal mandates a sprawling congressional district in northern Florida that stretches lots of of miles from East to West solely to attach black voters in Jacksonville with black voters in Gadsden and Leon Counties (with few in between) in order that they could elect candidates of their alternative,” wrote DeSantis to the excessive court docket.
Lawson, a former long-term state legislator who was first elected to Congress in 2016, blasted the governor’s actions and stated DeSantis was making an attempt to “hijack this constitutional course of for his personal political objectives.”
“Whereas disappointing, Ron DeSantis’s continued assault on the rights of Black and minority voters will not be a shock,” Lawson stated in a press release. “I hope that the Florida Supreme Court docket chooses to respect our separation of powers, rises above politics, and avoids wading into this partisan dispute.”
Lawson additionally hinted that an effort to dismantle his district would set off a court docket battle.
“Ron DeSantis’s effort to disenfranchise each minority voter north of Orlando is an act that won’t go with no struggle,” he added.
It’s not clear how lengthy the court docket might take to reply to DeSantis, however state Rep. Tyler Sirois, the Merritt Island Republican accountable for the Home panel coping with congressional redistricting, stated the decrease chamber wouldn’t proceed any additional till the court docket guidelines.
“It’s not in our curiosity to proceed till such a time that the court docket signifies whether or not it’s going to present further steering,” Sirois wrote to members of his committee.
The governor’s request acknowledged that it was the state Supreme Court docket that signed off on a map that included the present configuration for Florida’s fifth congressional district.
On the time, the court docket, which nonetheless had a liberal majority, accredited a minority-access district that stretched throughout north Florida as an alternative of 1 that linked Black neighborhoods in Orlando and Jacksonville. Justices contended that the map initially produced by the Legislature had been tainted by partisan motivations that have been barred by the Truthful Districts initiative accredited by voters in 2010.
However DeSantis has remade the excessive court docket with a number of key appointments since he took workplace in early 2019. Chief Justice Charles Canady and the court docket’s conservative majority since then have already overturned a number of earlier selections and rulings.
DeSantis’ letter additionally notes that Lawson’s district was accredited previous to a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling by which two North Carolina congressional districts have been thrown out as a result of state legislators relied too closely on race when drawing them.
He particularly requested for justices to spell out when the rights of minority voters to decide on a candidate had been diminished: “However is that so even when the district within the present plan was designed solely to cobble collectively sufficient minority voters from distant and distinct geographic areas to elect candidates of their alternative regardless of not constituting a majority? Or should the benchmark be confined to the minority inhabitants in a fairly cohesive geographic space?”
The governor added that “Florida’s non-diminishment standard-like the Voting Rights Act’s non-diminishment standard-is a potent, race-based resolution to a race-based downside. I ask to your opinion to assist me be sufficiently acutely aware of race to adjust to the Florida Structure’s anti-diminishment provision however keep away from being so acutely aware of race that my actions may violate the U.S. and Florida Constitutions.”
Throughout a Tuesday press convention in Miami, DeSantis predicted that he and the Legislature would be capable to attain an settlement on a congressional map whereas on the similar time slamming what he known as “monstrosities” drawn up in New York and Illinois.
“I feel we’re going to have the ability to get to a great spot and have a very good product,” stated DeSantis, who didn’t observe the request to the Supreme Court docket. “We’ve acquired to get a few authorized points squared away.”
The map that the governor’s normal counsel submitted to legislators final month may seemingly outcome within the variety of seats held by Black lawmakers going from 4 on present proposed congressional maps to 2, whereas boosting the variety of seats Donald Trump would have gained in 2020 to 18 from the 16 on the map being thought of by the GOP-led Florida Senate.
The specter of authorized challenges looms giant over Florida’s redistricting course of, which in 2012 grew to become mired in a four-year authorized struggle after left-leaning voter teams filed a lawsuit below Florida’s Truthful District amendments, that are anti-gerrymandering provisions within the state Structure. Because of this, present court-approved state Senate and congressional maps have been largely drawn by the teams that challenged the unique maps.
The GOP-controlled Florida Senate, led by Senate President Wilton Simpson, has drawn up a congressional map that’s making an attempt to sidestep authorized problem. The Senate’s congressional map was overwhelmingly accredited final month with each Democrats and Republicans voting sure. Lawmakers have till early March to come back to a last settlement on a brand new map.