MIAMI– Progressive civic groups have challenged the way four congressional districts and seven state congressional districts in South Florida were chosen by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, claiming they were racially gerrymandered toward Hispanics, who are too diverse in Florida to be considered a minority. protected.
The groups filed a lawsuit Thursday, claiming the districts are unconstitutional and asking a federal court in South Florida to block them from being used in any elections. Named as defendants were the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd.
A message seeking comment was left Saturday at the Secretary of State’s office.
Under federal and state law, race may be considered during redistricting to protect minority voters if the minority group is cohesive and if majority-white voters are able to prevent the minority group from electing their preferred candidates.
However, the Florida legislature wrongly assumed that South Florida’s Hispanic voters are cohesive, when that is no longer the case, since the white majority in Florida regularly votes in coalition with Hispanic voters in South Florida, it states the process.
“Rather, it is nuanced, multifaceted and diverse with respect to behavior and political preferences,” the lawsuit states about South Florida’s Hispanic community. “The Legislature had no right to draw districts based on race based on uninformed assumptions of racial equality.”
Instead, genuine minority interest communities in the city of Miami and Collier County, where Naples is located, were divided when districts were drawn, according to the lawsuit.
More than two-thirds of the residents of Miami-Dade County — where the districts targeted by the lawsuit are concentrated — are Hispanic.
“In drawing these districts, the Florida Legislature subordinated traditional redistricting criteria and state constitutional requirements to the contest without narrowly tailoring district lines to advance a compelling governmental interest,” the lawsuit said.
The challenged congressional districts — 19, 26, 27 and 28 — stretch from the Fort Myers area on the Gulf Coast across the state to the Miami area and up to the Florida Keys. The House districts under scrutiny — 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118 and 119 — are concentrated in the Miami area.
All districts are currently represented by Republicans.
As drawn, the districts violate basic principles of good district design, such as ensuring communities remain intact, being compact, and preventing districts from stretching far and wide into disparate neighborhoods, the lawsuit claims.
