Federal Judges are allowing a legal challenge to South Florida’s congressional and Florida House districts to move forward.

But the three-Judge panel also said plaintiffs were only allowed to continue a challenge against eight of 10 districts originally called out in federal complaints.

The lawsuit ironically alleges the same motivations behind the cartography that Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed motivated him to veto a congressional map (P 0109) approved by the Legislature before his office submitted the map, which has been in place since 2022.

The lawsuit said Florida’s 26th, 27th and 28th Congressional Districts were all drawn motivated primarily by race. Notably, all three districts are currently represented by Republican Cuban Americans: U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart of Hialeah, María Elvira Salazar of Coral Gables and Carlos Giménez of Miami-Dade, respectively.

The courts only will allow a legal challenge to CD 26, Díaz-Balart’s district. That notably spans from Immokalee in Collier County to Hialeah and Miami Beach in north Miami-Dade County.

“Taken together and taken as true, the Complaint plausibly alleges that the decision to add and subtract voters from Congressional District 26 to maintain majority-minority districts is akin to the same kind of harm the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits by ‘segregat(ing) voters into separate voting districts because of their race,’” an order from the court reads.

But the court granted a State Department motion to dismiss legal challenges to CD 27 and 28, saying plaintiffs failed to demonstrate “bizarre” and “noncompact” features for those districts. Salazar’s CD 27 covers a coastal portion of Miami-Dade County from Sweetwater in the north to Biscayne Bay in the south, while Giménez’s CD 28 covers all of Monroe County and remaining parts of south Miami-Dade.

The current lawsuit was filed by Cubanos Pa’lante, Engage Miami, the ACLU Club at Florida International University (FIU) and four local residents.

“This ruling moves us one step closer to maps that treat South Florida’s Latino community fairly,” said Genesis Falcon, one of the resident plaintiffs and a former Vice President of the ACLU Club at FIU. “We deserve better than racially gerrymandered districts that slice through communities and deny representation.”

Of note, DeSantis cited racially motivated gerrymandering as his objection to the congressional maps originally considered and ultimately approved by the Legislature, but he argued primarily against a Democratic-leaning district in North Florida. A prior map put in place by the Florida Supreme Court in 2015 included a district that spanned from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and was previously represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Al Lawson.

After the map was replaced with one drawn by DeSantis, that district was dismantled. Lawson lost re-election running in a Republican-leaning seat as House Republicans picked up four Florida seats under DeSantis’ map.

But DeSantis’ map did not change any of the districts in South Florida from the makeup approved by the Legislature in the map the Governor vetoed. That means while he insisted on changing the makeup of multiple seats previously held by Democrats, he left all the heavily Cuban-American seats in South Florida.

Unlike most racial minority communities in the state, Cuban American voters have leaned Republican in voting behavior for decades.

Plaintiffs have until Feb. 21 to amend the complaint appropriately to drop challenges to CD 27 and 28. But while plaintiffs can no longer challenge those seats, any neighboring districts will be impacted if courts require a redraw on the CD 26 boundaries.

The court rejected motions from the state to dismiss complaints against any state legislative boundaries. Plaintiffs can legally challenge seven House Districts: 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 118 and 119. Those are represented by Republican state Reps. Alex Rizo, Vicki Lopez, Demi Busatta Cabrera, Omar Blanco, Daniel Perez, Mike Redondo and Juan Porras, respectively. All the districts are in Miami-Dade County east of State Road 997.

The map of House districts (H 8013) was approved by the Legislature and not subject to a veto by the Governor. The Florida Supreme Court in an automatic review of the map approved the map in March 2022 shortly after passage, but that initial review still allowed the cartography to be challenged in coming elections.

“From Miami Lakes to Homestead, from Little Havana to Immokalee, we stand shoulder-to- shoulder with our fellow community members and against the politicians who suppress our diverse voices,” said Mike Rivero, Cubanos Pa’lante co-founder. “We are proud to continue this case to further Latino representation and fight racial gerrymandering.”

Plaintiffs argue the racial gerrymandering of seats in South Florida violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“We are heartened that the court recognizes the serious harms that racial gerrymandering inflicts on South Florida’s communities,” said O’Melveny & Myers associate Gabrielle Jackson. “We look forward to continuing this case to ensure every eligible Florida voter can fully and freely participate in the democratic process.”

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