Appeals court reinstates Florida congressional map backed by DeSantis
CNN
A Florida appeals court has reinstated the congressional map Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law last month, allowing the controversial new district boundaries to take effect for now.
In an order issued Friday, the First District Court of Appeal stayed a temporary injunction on the DeSantis map put in place May 12 by a circuit court judge. The judge, J. Layne Smith of the 2nd Circuit Court of Florida, had blocked the map because he said it unconstitutionally disenfranchised minority voters by breaking up a northern Florida district represented by Democrat Al Lawson, who is Black.
The appeals court on Friday also expressed skepticism with Smith's decision to replace the DeSantis map with one drawn by Harvard University professor Stephen Ansolabehere while the lawsuit proceeds. The court said there was a "high likelihood" that Smith's decision was unlawful because "by awarding a preliminary remedy to the appellees' on their claim, the order 'frustrated the status quo, rather than preserved it.'"
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