A panel of federal judges in Florida has rejected a push by Rep. Corrine Brown to throw out Florida’s newest congressional map.
In a 26-page order, three judges said Monday night that Brown, a Democrat, had “not proven [her] case and that defendants are entitled to judgment in their favor,” according to the Associated Press.
Brown argued that the current map, which drastically altered her old Jacksonville district, violated federal voting laws by impeding the rights of minority voters.
The Florida Supreme Court decided in December that the map drawn by the Florida legislature in 2012 was unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. The new map is being implemented for the first time this election cycle.
Brown said she was “extremely disappointed” in Monday’s ruling and would review it with her attorneys before issuing a “longer, formal statement” Tuesday. Her old district was 50.1 percent black, while her new one is now 45.1 percent black and 45.8 percent white.
The judges said that Brown didn’t show that “white-bloc voting regularly defeats black-preferred candidates,” and was incorrect in claiming “the large number of nonvoting prisoners [in the new district] undermines the ability of blacks to elect their candidate of choice.”
“Indeed, as the Florida Supreme Court recognized, Congresswoman Brown has been continuously elected despite black [voters’] percentages dropping as low as 42.7” percent, the judges said, noting that Brown has been in Congress for 23 years.
A handful over other Florida incumbents then saw their constituents’ party alignment change. Rep. Gwen Graham is a Democrat, for example, but her new district in north Florida now leans Republican and splits her home city of Tallahassee.
“I’m disappointed the second congressional District will be transformed from a fair, moderate district into two extreme partisan districts. Dividing Tallahassee hurts north Florida and our community,” Graham said in a statement after the judges’ ruling Monday. “Now that the lengthy legal challenges to the maps have been completed, I will make a decision as to what’s next as soon as possible. Though the maps may have changed, my commitment to public service has not.”
When the map was approved by the Supreme Court, The League of Women Voters and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit said the state’s new 27 congressional districts increase the voting rights of blacks statewide.
