Plaintiffs seek to speed up redistricting case

NSF Staff Report

Civil rights groups and other plaintiffs asked the Florida Supreme Court to speed up a congressional redistricting case to try to resolve it in time for the 2024 elections. 

The Supreme Court said last week it will take up the case but set a schedule that indicated the constitutional fight will not be decided before a late April deadline for congressional candidates to qualify for this year’s elections.

In a six-page motion last Thursday, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked for changes to the schedule that would lead to oral arguments during the first week of April. The motion cited the “petitioners’ waning window to access relief.” 

The qualifying period is scheduled from April 22 to April 26. 

“Even if this court’s resolution of the matter runs up to the qualifying deadline, there is ample room to adjust that deadline to ensure the state’s Constitution is vindicated,” the motion said. “In fact, in redistricting years, the state’s candidate qualifying deadline is typically held in June, as it was in 2022.”

The motion said the state will oppose speeding up the case.

The plaintiffs went to the Supreme Court after the 1st District Court of Appeal on Dec. 1 upheld the constitutionality of a redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature in 2022. The case centers on a North Florida district that in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson but was overhauled in the 2022 redistricting plan. 

The overhaul put the district, Congressional District 5, in the Jacksonville area, and White Republicans won all North Florida congressional seats in the November 2022 elections.

The plaintiffs argue the overhaul violated part of a 2010 constitutional amendment, known as the Fair Districts Amendment, that barred drawing districts that would “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

While a Leon County circuit judge agreed with the plaintiffs, the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned that decision and ruled in favor of the state.