Politics
ACLU sues Daytona Beach — again — over City Commission districts
The ACLU argued this year’s redistricting discussion frequently centered around making sure 2 of the districts had Black majorities.
The Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing the city of Daytona Beach and the Volusia County Elections Supervisor over allegations of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering regarding City Commission districts.
It’s the second lawsuit the ACLU has filed targeting Daytona Beach’s districts in less than two years.
“In crafting Zones 5 and 6, the Commission set an arbitrary and unjustified racial target: that they should have at least 50% Black residents,” the new lawsuit said. “The City engaged in racial gerrymandering that unconstitutionally abridges Plaintiffs’ rights to the equal protection of the laws.”
The ACLU filed the lawsuit this week in the U.S. District Court’s Orlando division on behalf of the Vote! political committee and three of its members who are Black or Hispanic.
The ACLU previously sued Daytona Beach in 2024, challenging the City Commission’s makeup and arguing the districts were intentionally drawn to help incumbents stay in office.
Following the 2024 lawsuit, the city agreed to throw out the old map and redraw the lines again this year.
But the ACLU argued the latest discussion frequently centered around making sure two of the districts were Black-controlled, according to the lawsuit, quoting comments made at public meetings and a memorandum written by a consultant.
“Maintaining Zones 5 and 6 as minority majority districts was a central, non-negotiable criterion from the start of the process,” the lawsuit said. “These race-based decisions resulted in a map that splits communities and subordinates traditional redistricting criteria like ‘respect for . . . communities defined by actual shared interests.’
“The Commission explicitly rejected alternative plans that adhered better to traditional criteria because they did not meet the Commission’s desired racial targets. The fact that certain alternatives lacked two majority-minority zones was, in the Commission’s view, ‘faults’ that its consultant would need to ‘correct’ if the Commission preferred one of those options.”
The ACLU and the city of Daytona Beach did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
