{"id":260226,"date":"2026-05-06T05:29:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260226\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T05:29:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:29:21","slug":"voting-rights-groups-bring-third-challenge-to-floridas-newly-enacted-congressional-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260226\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting rights groups bring third challenge to Florida’s newly enacted congressional map"},"content":{"rendered":"

A third lawsuit has been filed challenging Florida\u2019s new<\/a> congressional map.<\/p>\n

Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Florida, and the League of United Latin American Citizens challenged the cartography in a lawsuit<\/a> filed in Leon County Circuit Court. Representation is provided through the Southern Poverty Law Center, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, and Democracy Defenders Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor\u2019s ploy to impose maps for an unfair partisan advantage is exactly why voters made it illegal in 2010 \u2014 and why we\u2019re going to court,\u201d said Common Cause\u2019s Florida Executive Director Amy Keith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Governor and Republican lawmakers will stop at nothing to put their finger on the scale because they are afraid of being held accountable by the people. We expect the courts to be the adults in the room and honor the Florida Constitution and the will of Florida voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit came a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation enacting a map his office designed<\/a>. Florida\u2019s Legislature approved the map in a Special Session last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The map, which cuts the number of Democrat-leaning U.S. House Districts from eight to four, was drawn to be \u201crace neutral,\u201d according to the Governor\u2019s staff. The map also breaks apart a majority Hispanic district in Central Florida.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit contends the cartography violates the Florida Constitution\u2019s Fair Districts amendment, which voters approved in 2010. That bars drawing maps with partisan intent or which diminish the voting power of minority communities.<\/p>\n

The group took note DeSantis released the map to Fox News<\/a> before submitting it to lawmakers for review and provided a copy with districts colored red and blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a map is distributed in a red\/blue format to the media before being transmitted to the Legislature, and when the Governor\u2019s staff openly acknowledges in committee that there is no new Census data being used to justify a new map, Florida voters can\u2019t help but suspect that this is a partisan gerrymander,\u201d said League of Women Voters of Florida President Jessica Lowe-Minor.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians have consistently said they are not interested in political gamesmanship within redistricting, which is why they passed the Fair Districts standards overwhelmingly in 2010. We hope the courts restore the rule of law and uphold the Florida Constitution\u2019s explicit prohibition against partisan gerrymandering.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The lawsuit follows other challenges, one<\/a> filed by the Equal Ground Education Fund and another<\/a> by the Campaign Legal Center and the UCLA Voting Rights Project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A third lawsuit has been filed challenging Florida\u2019s new congressional map. Common Cause, the League of Women Voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[112545,112546,112547,97984,10351,412,112548,5495,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-260226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-common-cause","tag-democracy-defenders-fund","tag-league-of-united-latin-american-citizens","tag-league-of-women-voters-of-florida","tag-redistricting","tag-ron-desantis","tag-southern-coalition-for-social-justice","tag-southern-poverty-law-center","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260226","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=260226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}