TALLAHASSEE
Florida’s revised congressional redistricting map returned to court on Wednesday, with lawyers arguing whether the map would help or hurt minority voters.
Responding to an order from Circuit Judge Terry Lewis that invalidated the 2012 redistricting map, the Legislature met in a five-day special session earlier this month and passed a new congressional plan. It was largely aimed at modifying districts held by U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and Dan Webster, R-Orlando.
Lawyers for the Florida League of Women Voters and Common Cause Florida told Lewis that the revised plan, which modifies seven districts in total, did not go far enough and still violates the state constitutional ban against drawing district lines to benefit political parties.
David King, a lawyer representing the challengers, said lawmakers, seeking to protect the 17-10 seat Republican majority in the congressional delegation, tried “to do the least they could possibly do with this.”
“I hope the court concludes that they had to do more and that what they have done is unconstitutional,” King said.
But George Meros, a lawyer representing the Florida House, said lawmakers followed Lewis’ order closely, eliminating flaws he cited in both Brown’s district, a long serpentine district that runs from Jacksonville to Orlando, and Webster’s Orlando-area district.
“We conformed to every word of this court’s order,” Meros said.
Much of the three-hour hearing was spent in arguments over whether Brown’s revised district would help or hurt minority voters.
King said by keeping Brown’s district in a north-south configuration, it prevented the creation of another district in the Orlando area that could potentially elect an African-American lawmaker. The LWV and Common Cause had submitted an alternative map that reconfigured Brown’s seat by running it from Jacksonville west to the Tallahassee area, picking up pockets of African-American voters throughout the Panhandle.
King said keeping Brown’s district largely as it was did not protect minority voting rights. “That is a hollow claim when what they’re really protecting is their Republican interests and they are constraining more African-American representation by that approach.”
Meros said Brown’s north-south district was the result of a redistricting effort in the 1990s that allowed Florida to elect its first African-American congressional members since the Reconstruction era. He said if Brown’s district was centered in North Florida, it would isolate black voters throughout Central Florida, including places like Marion and Alachua counties.
“It takes us to a dark day that was remedied and it’s continued discrimination,” Meros said.
His argument was bolstered by an NAACP lawyer who said her clients supported Brown’s reconfigured district.
“We do believe the east-west configuration would diminish the ability of African-American voters to elect a candidate of choice,” said Allison Riggs. “This isn’t a game of limbo — how low you can go with the black voting age population in order to distribute black voters into Democratic districts. That’s the gamesmanship the NAACP is looking to avoid here.”
King said the east-west district was not necessarily the best plan, but he said the groups challenging the new map believe it demonstrates there were “other ways the Legislature could have proceeded.”
“They failed to do that,” he said. “They adopted an unconstitutional plan.”
Lewis did not issue a ruling at the hearing and only said he was aware of the “time sensitive” nature of the case, which comes as Florida voters are already participating in the Aug. 26 primary elections.
There were no arguments in the hearing over the recommendation that new districts not take effect until after the November general election.
State elections supervisors and Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the earliest dates for new elections for the districts would be a March primary and a May general election next year.
