<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1654188829433,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-00b6-db7d-abfd-7cb766d10000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1654188829433,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-00b6-db7d-abfd-7cb766d10000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_54185662", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1024458"} }); ","_id":"00000181-2556-dedf-ad93-bd7766690000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedFlorida’s Supreme Court declined to nix a lower court ruling leaving a GOP-friendly map touted by Gov. Ron DeSantis in place.
Legal jousting over the congressional lines in Florida rendered the Sunshine State’s apportionment one of the last outstanding questions in the decennial line-drawing process nationally, but the high court’s decision Thursday to stay out of the fray for now seemingly ensures the DeSantis-backed map will remain intact for the 2022 midterm election cycle.
COURT REINSTATES DESANTIS’S CONGRESSIONAL MAP
“Here petitioners (the plaintiffs) ask this Court to intervene in the First District Court of Appeal’s ongoing consideration of an appeal of an order imposing a temporary injunction,” the ruling said.
Advocacy groups such as Black Voters Matter, Equal Ground Education Fund, and others petitioned the high court to stay, or temporarily suspend, a recent decision by the 1st District Court of Appeal last month that effectively reinstated the map. The appeals court decision stayed a prior circuit court order requiring a modified version of the map to be enacted that retained the current layout for the state’s 5th Congressional District ahead of the midterm elections, a key pressure point during redistricting negotiations.
Legal fights over Florida’s map remain ongoing, but the state Supreme Court’s 4-1 decision Thursday not to stay the appeals court ruling appears to have dashed hopes for Democrats of toppling the unfavorable map ahead of the midterm elections. Justice Jorge Labarga was the sole dissenter in the case and argued the court had grounds to intervene.
“Given this Court’s history of considering congressional redistricting cases, I cannot forecast that we will lack jurisdiction to review the district court’s merits decision,” Labarga wrote in his dissent. “At stake here is the mandate of 62.9% of Florida voters who voted in 2010 for one of what are commonly known as the Fair Districts Amendments to the Florida Constitution — by any measure of comparison, 62.9% of the vote is an overwhelming margin.”
The map has the potential to boost Republicans’ 16-11 congressional advantage in the state to 20-8, according to multiple analyses. Voter rights groups and Democrats have panned the map, pointing to its handling of the 5th Congressional District, home to Rep. Al Lawson.
Republicans were initially on track to leave the district alone, but DeSantis vetoed a map that did that and forced the Republican-led legislature to send him a map that would break the district up. Voting rights groups and Democrats claimed the breakup of that district diminished the power of minority voters in violation of the Fair Districts Amendment.
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Republicans appear to have come out on top of this redistricting cycle, poised to pick up three to four seats from apportionment alone. That comes in addition to an expected red wave amid favorable historical winds, low approval ratings for President Joe Biden, unbridled inflation, and other dilemmas for Democrats.
With New Hampshire having enacted a map earlier this week, all states have legally binding congressional maps in place. About a dozen states have litigation pending over their apportionment.
