Tallahassee, F.L. (May 12, 2022) — A federal court ruled voting rights advocates could add intentional racial discrimination claims to their lawsuit challenging Florida’s Congressional redistricting plan.

Common Cause Florida, FairDistrictsNOW, and Florida State Conference of the NAACP, as well as five individual plaintiffs, filed a motion on April 29, 2022  to amend their original “one person, one vote” complaint in order to challenge the newly-enacted Congressional map and to add the Florida NAACP as a plaintiff. The Plaintiffs argue that the Governor and Legislature intentionally discriminated against Black voters and violated the U.S. Constitution by enacting the discriminatory Congressional map.

Defendant Secretary of State Laurel Lee has 14 days to respond to the suit. Governor Ron DeSantis will be required to respond after he has been formally served.

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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. In 1941, the NAACP Florida State Conference was formed as the 1st State Conference in the nation. For more information on the NAACP Florida State Conference, please visit www.FLNAACP.com or follow us on Twitter @FLNAACP.

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process. For more information, see CommonCause.org.

FairDistricts Now is a non-profit, non-partisan organization founded for the purpose of ensuring that redistricting in Florida complies with the FairDistricts Amendments and other applicable law.  Since 2010 it has taken a leadership role in enforcing the state and federal constitutional provisions governing legislative and congressional redistricting.  For more information see www.FairDistrictsNow.org.