A federal court on Aug. 6 unanimously upheld three South Florida state House districts, finding the districts were not unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
The plaintiffs—three progressive groups and several voters—had argued that the Florida Legislature’s creation of four majority-minority Hispanic districts in the southern part of the state violated the U.S. Constitution as a racial gerrymander. Three of the districts at issue were in the Florida House of Representatives, while the remaining district was in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Gerrymandering is the drawing of district boundaries to favor a particular party or constituency.
The progressive groups argued that the districts were drawn based on race, rather than community interests. They took the position that lumping all Hispanic voters together ignored significant differences between groups like Venezuelans and Cubans and that this might weaken the power of more progressive voters in those communities….
Federal Court Upholds 3 State Legislative Districts in Florida
