Florida Supreme Court allows state Republicans to use new congressional map

The Florida Supreme Court declined Wednesday to halt the use of a new congressional map that state Republicans passed earlier this year amid a mid-decade redistricting push.

Gov. Ron DeSantis had signed the map into law in May, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Louisiana redistricting case that the state's existing congressional map that includes an additional majority-black district violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

A Florida judge blocked a lawsuit from several Democratic groups that sued the state in May over the map, which could have given Republicans as much as a 24-4 advantage. Republicans in Florida currently hold a 20-8 majority in its U.S. congressional delegation.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld that ruling in a 6-1 split, according to The Hill, refusing the request to issue a temporary injunction against the new districts.

Attorneys for the voters who sued have argued the new House districts violate a state constitutional provision prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. They asked the court to order the state to continue using the same districts as in the previous election in the state's August primaries.