\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida\u2019s governor and Republican leadership are facing three lawsuits in an attempt to block the newly-drawn congressional map approved by lawmakers last week.It was signed into law by the governor on Monday. \u201cIt violates what the people of Florida have determined should not occur within redistricting,\u201d said Brad Heard, the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which early Tuesday morning filed its lawsuit against republican Governor Ron DeSantis and state officials. SPLC did so on behalf of Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and League of United Latin American Citizens. The complaint aims to overturn the new congressional map on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Specifically, it claims Florida Republicans are leading “a nationwide partisan arms race,” and the SPLC lawsuit alleges the new map “diminishes Black and Latino voting strength” and “violates the Fair Districts Amendments,” which outlawed maps drawn for political gain. Heard added, \u201cIn 2010, the voters demanded that this type of gerrymandering be prohibited in Florida. And so, absolutely, this map should be struck down.\u201d But the Chair. of the Republican Party of Florida, Evan Power, has argued for months that with a million and a half more registered Republicans in the state than Democrats, more GOP seats are “fair districts.” Power told WESH 2, \u201cObviously if you draw fair districts here in Florida we’ll elect more Republicans. This State was won by 13 points by Donald Trump. There’s room for more Republican seats.\u201d Also filing suit is Equal Ground, which joined the Central Florida Black Caucus for a news conference at Orlando City Hall. They condemned the Supreme Court decision last week to dilute minority voting strength and say their lawsuit against the governor will prove partisan intent to redraw the congressional map. Equal Ground founder Jasmine Burney Clark explained, \u201cWe are asking the courts to do what Florida voters have intended. We need them to uphold the constitution, reject unlawful maps, and ensure every voter has a fair and equal voice.\u201d While Orlando Congressman Maxwell Frost’s district 10 appears to remain safely Democratic, Democrat Darren Soto of Kissimmee will face a steep uphill climb to retain his District Nine seat, that now leans Republican. A third lawsuit was filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project and the Campaign Legal Center.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s governor and Republican leadership are facing three lawsuits in an attempt to block the newly-drawn congressional map approved by lawmakers last week.<\/p>\n
It was signed into law by the governor on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt violates what the people of Florida have determined should not occur within redistricting,\u201d said Brad Heard, the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which early Tuesday morning filed its lawsuit against republican Governor Ron DeSantis and state officials. <\/p>\n
SPLC did so on behalf of Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, and League of United Latin American Citizens.<\/p>\n
The complaint aims to overturn the new congressional map on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. Specifically, it claims Florida Republicans are leading “a nationwide partisan arms race,” and the SPLC lawsuit alleges the new map “diminishes Black and Latino voting strength” and “violates the Fair Districts Amendments,” which outlawed maps drawn for political gain. <\/p>\n
Heard added, \u201cIn 2010, the voters demanded that this type of gerrymandering be prohibited in Florida. And so, absolutely, this map should be struck down.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Chair. of the Republican Party of Florida, Evan Power, has argued for months that with a million and a half more registered Republicans in the state than Democrats, more GOP seats are “fair districts.” <\/p>\n
Power told WESH 2, \u201cObviously if you draw fair districts here in Florida we’ll elect more Republicans. This State was won by 13 points by Donald Trump. There’s room for more Republican seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also filing suit is Equal Ground, which joined the Central Florida Black Caucus for a news conference at Orlando City Hall. They condemned the Supreme Court decision last week to dilute minority voting strength and say their lawsuit against the governor will prove partisan intent to redraw the congressional map. <\/p>\n
Equal Ground founder Jasmine Burney Clark explained, \u201cWe are asking the courts to do what Florida voters have intended. We need them to uphold the constitution, reject unlawful maps, and ensure every voter has a fair and equal voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Orlando Congressman Maxwell Frost’s district 10 appears to remain safely Democratic, Democrat Darren Soto of Kissimmee will face a steep uphill climb to retain his District Nine seat, that now leans Republican.<\/p>\n
A third lawsuit was filed by the UCLA Voting Rights Project and the Campaign Legal Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s governor and Republican leadership are facing three lawsuits in an attempt to block the newly-drawn congressional map…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8219,51922,112433,28,30,29,6281,833,11977,112434,110011,109004,23721,4219,31823,100657,16663],"class_list":["post-259771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-court","tag-evan-power","tag-fair-district","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-governor","tag-lawsuit","tag-league","tag-more-gop-seat","tag-new-congressional-map","tag-new-map","tag-republican-governor-ron-desantis","tag-republicans","tag-splc","tag-state-official","tag-voter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}