A group of Florida Democratic voters and a voting rights group jointly filed a lawsuit against Florida‘s new congressional map that could give the state four new Republican seats.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in Florida’s 2nd Judicial Court just hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed legislation enacting a new map that would give Republicans a 24-4 advantage in the state’s congressional delegation.
The complaint seeks to bar the map from going into effect and was filed by the National Redistricting Foundation and the liberal Elias Law Group, on behalf of the Equal Ground Education Fund and over a dozen Democratic-leaning voters. The lawyers argue the move violates the state constitution’s Fair Districts Amendment, which prohibits partisan gerrymandering.
“Florida made no efforts to amend its constitution when it sought to join the partisan wars and conduct a mid-decade redistricting for partisan gain,” the complaint reads. “Florida’s constitution continues to expressly prohibit partisan gerrymandering—a constraint the Legislature chose to ignore.”
DeSantis, on the other hand, has argued that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais striking down race-based redistricting justifies new districts under the Republican-drawn map.
“The decision implicates a district in FL — the legal infirmities of which have been corrected in the newly-drawn (and soon to be enacted) map,” DeSantis had written on X last week.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment on the lawsuit.
Florida’s legislature passed the map last week in a special legislative session called after voters in Virginia approved the Democratic legislature’s newly drawn map that could give Democrats in the Old Dominion a 10-1 advantage. The push from DeSantis and the Florida GOP is the latest push-and-pull move in the country’s redistricting wars, sparked in Texas last year.
The four Democratic representatives at risk of losing their seats under the new Florida map are Reps. Darren Soto (D-FL), Kathy Castor (D-FL), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). The map would likely erase Democrats’ only seat in the Tampa area, a Democratic seat in the Orlando area, and eat away at the Democrats’ hold in the Miami area.
The complaint filed on Monday asks the state court to reinstate Florida’s 2022 congressional map or adopt “a new congressional districting plan that complies with” the Fair Districts Amendment for the 2026 elections.
DESANTIS SIGNS NEW FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL MAP THAT COULD NET GOP FOUR SEATS INTO LAW
The lawsuit names Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and both the state’s Senate and House of Representatives as defendants.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Byrd’s office for comment.