A Leon Circuit Court judge heard arguments Friday in a case challenging the new congressional districts passed by lawmakers last month, but made no immediate ruling.
Voting rights groups and individual voters had filed three separate lawsuits, each asking Judge Joshua Hawkes to issue a temporary injunction striking down the new maps, which they argue were drawn to favor the Republican Party in violation of Florida’s Fair District Amendment banning partisan gerrymandering.
“This case is simple because the violations of the Fair Districts Amendment were and announced in a live legislative session for everyone to see,” said Christina Ford, attorney representing Equal Ground Education Fund.
READ MORE: A breakdown of the changes for Florida's new congressional map
The new map was first given to Fox News before the Legislature, with a partisan breakdown of how the new districts voted for President in 2024. It showed there could be a switch from the current 20-8 Republican-Democratic breakdown in the Florida delegation in the U.S. House to a 24-4 advantage for the GOP.
The difference could matter in a midterm election year where the Republican Party is trying to hold onto a narrow advantage in the U.S. House. Over the last year, President Donald Trump urged GOP-led states to draw new maps to favor Republicans, and many complied, with Democratic-led states acting to counter the moves.
Attorneys representing Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose aide drew the map, Secretary of State Cord Byrd, and the Legislature claimed there was no partisan intent, even though partisan data was used to draw the new districts.
Moreover, the voting rights groups didn’t prove that the prior map, which DeSantis argued included racially gerrymandered districts in South Florida, would be valid. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling while Florida lawmakers were debating the map that a Louisiana congressional map unconstitutionally drew districts to favor Black voters. And since the court couldn’t reinstate Florida’s unconstitutional map, DeSantis’ lawyer argued, the new map should stand.
“The (old) map’s use of race is inappropriate,” said Mohammad Jazil, the lawyer representing DeSantis and Byrd. “The plaintiffs bear the burden … to show that it’s a viable alternative.”
Ford countered that DeSantis and the Legislature were trying to have it both ways – claiming the court shouldn’t presume the old maps, passed in 2022 and approved by DeSantis, to be valid, while asserting the new maps should be.
Lawyers for the House and Senate argued Ford and other attorneys for the voting rights groups were conflating the alleged partisan intent of Jason Poreda, DeSantis’ aide who drew the maps, and the Legislature’s intent.
“None of the plaintiffs here offered a shred of evidence … suggesting what the intent of any member of the Legislature was in passing this legislation,” Nordby said.
Hawkes questioned that reasoning, noting the Legislature simply took the map drawn by Poreda and passed it without any changes. Ford also refuted Nordby’s argument, noting lawmakers heard Poreda admit during a hearing on the new map he used partisan data in crafting it.
“The Legislature were not unsuspecting dupes to this whole process; they are adults with eyes and ears who watched this whole thing play out, and they signed on to it,” Ford said.
Jazil also argued the court should leave the map in place because it is too close to the primary election schedule to make such a big change, pointing to federal precedent cautioning courts against making rulings that would alter the parameters of an election close to the election date.
Jazil noted in 2015 that the Florida Supreme Court ultimately struck down a congressional map as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, but only after a long lower court trial with plenty of evidence to back up the claims of the voting rights groups who wanted it quashed.
“That bad map was in place for two cycles, and it remained in place until the Florida Supreme Court ultimately decided that it was unconstitutional,” Jazil said.
This time around, however, time is short if the new map is to be struck down before elections begin. Qualifying for the congressional races starts June 8, and the primary will be held Aug. 18. Hawkes, though, didn’t give a timeframe for issuing an order in the case.