Florida's high court poised to protect DeSantis' congressional map that helps GOP
https://www.yahoo.com/news/florida-high-court-poised-protect-190000815.html
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Floridas highest court on Thursday expressed skepticism about scrapping the congressional map muscled into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis that helped Republicans flip the House two years ago.
The legal battle over Floridas congressional map finally reached the state Supreme Court, which is now almost completely made up of DeSantis appointees. The case centers on whether legislators at the insistence of the states GOP governor should have followed voter-approved standards that provide protections for minority voters. The DeSantis map dismantled a North Florida seat held by former Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat, and split Black voters into four districts.
The governor and his allies have defended their actions by contending that Lawsons seat was unconstitutional under federal law, and that supersedes the state-level protections voters passed back in 2010.
Several justices on the Florida Supreme Court sounded receptive to those arguments on Thursday, with Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz wondering publicly if the court should completely nullify Floridas Fair Districts amendment that was approved by nearly 63 percent of voters.
It seems like now theres potentially a paradigm shift where you cant follow the roadmap, Muñiz said. He later asked, do the voters get a chance to sort of start from scratch?