NRF-Supported Voters File Petition to Florida Supreme Court

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Jena Doyle
Doyle@redistrictingfoundation.org

NRF-Supported Voters File Petition to Florida Supreme Court

Washington, D.C. — This afternoon, National Redistricting Foundation (NRF)-supported plaintiffs filed a petition before the Florida Supreme Court asking the Court to vacate a stay of a state trial court injunction implementing a remedial congressional map in Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute v. Byrd. The trial court’s injunction was stayed on May 20 by Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, allowing the unconstitutional DeSantis Map to go back into effect for now, as the case proceeds. One week prior, the trial court had ordered the state to use the remedial congressional map after ruling that the DeSantis Map’s configuration of Congressional District 5 in North Florida diminished the ability of Black voters to elect their preferred candidates, in violation of the Florida Constitution. The remedial map would ensure that Black voters in North Florida can continue to elect their candidates of choice to Congress. 

“It is essential that the Florida Supreme Court urgently re-institutes the remedial congressional map put in place by the trial court,” said Marina Jenkins, Director of Litigation and Policy for the NRF. “Black voters in North Florida have had the ability to elect their congressional candidate of choice since at least 2015, and they deserve to vote on a map that is just and fair –  the DeSantis Map is anything but. While the First District Court of Appeal did not dispute that Petitioners would likely be able to show that the DeSantis plan is unconstitutional, it put the map back in place anyway. Forcing voters to vote on an unconstitutional map will cause irreparable harm, and it is now the responsibility of the Supreme Court to ensure the implementation of a constitutional map.” 

The full brief can be found HERE. 

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