Florida Senate to battle against lawsuit claiming racist and ‘gerrymandered’ district lines

TAMPA, Fla. – A lawsuit has been filed challenging two Florida Senate districts in the Tampa Bay area, claiming the district map “racially gerrymanders.”

“Gerrymandering” is when officials draw district lines to advantage one party unfairly.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Civil Rights & Racial Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law filed the lawsuit, according to the press release. The lawsuit is on behalf of five residents.

The lawsuit alleges the legislature “packed Black voters into District 16, connecting geographically disconnected parts of Tampa and St. Petersburg.”

“The packed district extends across Tampa Bay to artificially inflate the number of Black voters in the district,” the ACLU said. “This depresses the Black populations of the surrounding districts because district lines carefully avoid neighborhoods with Black residents.”

In response to the lawsuit, Florida Senate President Pro Tempore Dennis Baxley, R-Lady Lake, issued a memo that said the Senate plans to “vigorously defend the unanimously approved work product of this body.”

Baxley condemned the the lawsuit, which names Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, as a defendant, for the untimely nature and lack of opposition during the Supreme Court review process in 2022.

“It defies reasonable understanding and basic human decency that after more than two years and approval by the Florida Supreme Court, the plaintiffs have chosen the days following the tragic and sudden passing of the First Gentleman of the Florida Senate, even prior to the funeral, to bring forward a lawsuit against President Passidomo that is not time sensitive,” Baxley said.

He noted the lawsuit “does not seek immediate relief,” which means it would “have no impact on the current election cycle.”

In April 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s new congressional map into law.

A federal court ruled last month to uphold the map, saying it does not discriminate on the basis of race, unlike what plaintiffs had claimed.