Miami Herald/Tribune News Service: Alabama ruling could bring good news to Florida Democrats

In the federal case, Common Cause vice president Kathay Feng said her group’s lawsuit also is supported by the Alabama decision, despite focusing on a different section of law.

The case, filed in the Northern District of Florida, alleges that the state violated the 14th and 15th Amendments by actively working to disenfranchise Black voters.

“In an unprecedented overreach of executive power, the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, bullied the Florida Legislature into adopting [the] congressional map, based on invidious discrimination against Black Floridians,” the suit states. “… These laws have been intentionally designed to make voting more difficult for Black Floridians in order to suppress the Black vote.”

“The Alabama ruling sent a very clear message that the court was going to look closely at the history of discrimination,” Feng said. “… Florida has a history of discriminating against black voters. And the impact was directly to take away the opportunity to vote from Black voters in the panhandle of Florida.”

 

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