Florida Redistricting

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.

In one case, voting rights groups argue state officials dismantled a historically Black voting district. In the other, activists say city of Miami leaders created voting districts based solely on race.

Saying a congressional redistricting plan approved last year by lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis abolished a “race-based electoral monopoly,” attorneys for the state late Wednesday argued that an appeals court should overturn a circuit judge’s ruling that the plan violates the Florida Constitution.

A federal three-judge panel heard closing arguments on Tuesday in a federal trial over the removal of North Florida's only district where Black voters could elect their candidate of choice.

A federal trial over Florida’s congressional map could wrap up early this week after attorneys for civil rights groups and voters suing over North Florida’s districts rested their case on Monday afternoon.

Lawyers representing Black voters told a three-judge federal panel that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the U.S. Constitution by deliberately dismantling a congressional district that favored Black candidates.

The trial begins Tuesday morning. Several civil rights groups and voters are challenging the map. They argue that it intentionally discriminates against Black voters.

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.

Seeking a final ruling before the legislative session starts in January, both sides in a battle over a congressional redistricting plan asked an appeals court Friday to fast-track the case to the Florida Supreme Court.

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.

The decision was the latest to strike down new congressional maps in Southern states over concerns that they diluted the voting power of Black residents.

Attorneys in the case presented arguments for and against maintaining the way U.S. House districts are drawn in North Florida during a hearing in state court on Thursday.