TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court has refused to stop a congressional redistricting plan struck down by a lower court from being used in this year’s elections, handing Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s ruling Republicans a major victory.
The 4-1 ruling Thursday by the court keeps in place a map that eliminates a Jacksonville-to-Tallahassee district with a large Black population that has elected U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat, to Congress since 2016.
Instead, the plan scatters 370,000 Black voters from Lawson’s district across four North Florida districts whose voting histories show they are likely to elect Republicans to Congress.
