From today’s Tampa Bay Times:
Focusing on a North Florida district that has become a legal and political battleground, voting rights groups and other plaintiffs are seeking a temporary injunction to block a congressional redistricting plan pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a motion late Tuesday requesting a temporary injunction, after filing a lawsuit Friday to challenge the plan. Republican lawmakers passed the plan during a special legislative session last week.
The motion, filed in Leon County circuit court, contends that an overhaul of North Florida’s Congressional District 5 violates a 2010 constitutional amendment — known as the Fair Districts amendment — that sets standards for redistricting in the state.
District 5 in recent years has stretched from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee and has tied together Black communities to help elect a Black candidate. The district is held by U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat.
But DeSantis has contended that the sprawling district was unconstitutionally gerrymandered, and the plan passed last week would condense it in the Jacksonville area. The motion for a temporary injunction argues that the new map violates part of the 2010 constitutional amendment that bars diminishing the ability of minority voters to “elect representatives of their choice.”
Read the complete story here.