Stomping out Fair Districts

By Grayson Keglovic

Florida’s “fair districts” are being “stomped off in our faces,” with Gov. Ron DeSantis to blame, League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL) President Cecile M. Scoon told Pensacola Bay members during her “Coffee with Cecile” on Friday, May 13.

“We have a governor who is knowingly going outside of the limits that have been long established in writing and by history and by precedent,” Scoon said. “Our governor is the enforcer of laws…you certainly don’t go out and do something that is a direct, easy violation of the law.”

In 2010, Florida voters approved the Fair Districts constitutional amendment that stated that congressional districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice.

Scoon, LWVFL’s first Black president, believes DeSantis’ violated the amendment when he redrew Florida’s congressional map. She asserted he wanted to silence the voices of two Black-majority districts.

“First rule (of Fair District Amendment) was thou shall not diminish,” said Scoon. “We had four districts; we went down to two. That’s straight-up wrong. So we said, we are not going to sit by and allow you to do that. If the courts want to dismantle what the people have put out—it was in our constitution, let them do it. But you’re not just going to walk up here and slice it up, and we say nothing.”

Earlier in the week, Leon County Judge Circuit Judge Layne Smith issued a temporary injunction against the redistricting plan after listening to LWVFL and the other plaintiffs. He agreed the plan passed during the special session violated the Fair Districts amendment.

The temporary injunction focused on the new plan’s overhaul of North Florida’s Congressional District 5, which stretches from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee, and was designed to help elect a Black member of Congress. It is held by U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat.

The DeSantis-backed plan condensed the district in the Jacksonville area, reducing the chances of electing a Black representative. The governor has contended that keeping the sprawling east-west shape of the district would involve racial gerrymandering and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Scoon said that the “cracking” of District Five would split the district into three parts, removing all black representatives and promoting racial discrimination.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Scoon said. “He said, ‘I realize the maps I’m advocating for don’t comport with the standard set by the Florida Supreme Court.’”

Later on Friday, May 13, the state appealed Smith’s temporary-injunction ruling to the 1st District Court of Appeal, triggering an automatic stay. But Smith held a hearing Monday and sided with voting-rights groups that requested he lift the stay.

With elections supervisors preparing for the Aug. 23 primary elections, Smith pointed to the possibility that an appeal would not be resolved quickly. If the stay were not vacated, that could result in supervisors using the DeSantis-backed map that Smith said violated part of the state Constitution.

“It’s crunch time now, and this involves fundamental constitutional rights,” Smith said Monday.

The state plans to ask the 1st District Court of Appeal to reimpose the stay, Mohammad Jazil, an attorney for the secretary of state, told The News Service of Florida.