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The Democratic Party and its allies have failed in their bid to change the congressional map in Florida ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
“Florida’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request for a hearing over the state’s controversial new congressional map that eliminates a majority Black district, putting an end—for now—to one of the most high-profile redistricting challenges heading into the midterms,” Forbes reported.
“A slew of voting rights groups suing the state wanted the court to consider reinstating an injunction blocking the map,” the report added. “Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith issued an injunction last month blocking the map, ruling the proposal to move the 5th Congressional District out of a majority Black region of north Florida violated the Fair Districts Amendments of the state constitution. A state appellate court quickly moved to overturn the injunction, a decision the state Supreme Court chose to uphold.”
“The court did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit, but its decision to not issue an injunction effectively kills any chance of overturning the map before the midterms,” the story noted.
Reporter Greg Price remarked that this is another loss for high-powered Democratic Attorney Marc Elias.
“The Florida Supreme Court is leaving DeSantis’ congressional maps in place that create four new GOP-leaning districts,” Price said. “They will be the maps used this November. Another fat L for Marc Elias.”
The Root exploded at the court’s decision not to hear the complaints of alleged civil rights groups contesting the Florida map.
“Groups such as Black Voters Matter, Equal Ground Education Fund, and League of Women Voters of Florida argued in the lawsuit the maps ‘ignored an amendment to the State Constitution approved by voters in 2010 that outlawed partisan mapmaking and specifically barred the creation of districts that diminished the ability of minority voters to elect their chosen candidates’.”
The battle over Congressional district maps have been raging across the country in the lead-up to the 2022 midterms. Political activist Scott Presler noted one such battle in Maryland.
“Many of you are asking why I’m coming to Frederick, MD, on June 8th,” he said. “Democrats tried to gerrymander Maryland, but a circuit court judge blocked them. The 6th congressional district, which used to be D+16, is now R+1. This is a flippable, winnable seat.”
That is what’s on the line in these Congressional district battles. In Florida, that question has been resolved ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Syndicated with licensed permission from Becker News. Follow Becker News on Telegram.
Current Founder, CEO and Chief Editor of Becker News. Former Writer & Associate Producer at Fox News for #1 top-rated prime-time cable news show. Former Director of Viral Media and Senior Managing Editor for award-winning startup website IJReview, which grew to a readership of 20-30 million Americans a month. Led editorial and social media team that was #1 ranked news & politics publisher on Facebook for story engagement. Writer whose thousands of digital articles have been read by over 100 million unique users.