Al Lawson

Voting rights groups challenging the state congressional map want the Florida Supreme Court to reinstate a district that gave Black voters in one region the chance to elect their preferred candidate.

Voting-rights groups and others asked the court to take up the case, which centers on a North Florida district that in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson but was overhauled during an April 2022 special legislative session.

Attorneys for plaintiffs filed a brief seeking a reversal of an appeal that upheld the plan, which the legislature passed in 2022.

An appeals court upheld the map, which plaintiffs say violated part of the constitutional amendment that barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

An appeals court has ruled that the Florida Legislature didn’t violate the state constitution when it approved congressional maps pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.

Plaintiffs argue that the overhaul of North Florida’s Congressional District 5 violated part of the constitutional amendment that barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

Voting-rights groups have asked an appeals court to uphold a ruling that a congressional redistricting plan backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution.

A three-judge panel of federal judges is scheduled next week to start hearing arguments in a lawsuit alleging that a congressional redistricting plan, pushed through the Legislature last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is racially discriminatory and violates the U.S. Constitution.

A state appeal has put on hold a circuit judge's ruling that a congressional redistricting plan violated the Florida Constitution, as the case could be on a fast track to the state Supreme Court.

Black voters in Florida could regain a congressional district where they make up a sizable share of the population, if voting rights groups prevail in an ongoing legal battle.

The marquee races include a pair of incumbent House members — Republican Neal Dunn and Democrat Al Lawson — facing off against each other in a north Florida district that leans GOP.

Two congressional incumbents vying to represent more than a dozen Panhandle counties share their views on the rising cost of tuition and federal student loan forgiveness.