(Tallahassee, Fla.) - Opening arguments were held today in Florida's northern district federal court in the trial over the state’s alleged gerrymandered 2022 congressional voting map.
Common Cause Florida attorney Alton Wang says Gov. Ron DeSantis pressured state lawmakers to approve voting districts that rob North Florida’s Black voters of the right to elect a candidate of their choice.
At the center of the dispute is the old 5th Congressional District which allowed Black voters in North Florida to elect their preferred candidates like former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Jacksonville) from 1992 until 2016 and then Rep. Al Lawson (D-Tallahassee) after that.
Wang says the congressional map violates the 14th and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The federal trial is expected to last up to two weeks and Wang says they hope to give voice to Black voters in North Florida as soon as possible.
The panel consists of 11th U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan and U.S. District Judges M. Casey Rogers and Allen C. Winsor, respectively appointed by Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
The legislature and Governor DeSantis are appealing the decision in a separate state case in which the judge struck down North Florida’s congressional districts. In the federal case, the plaintiffs just prove the state intentionally discriminated.