Judge Sides With Voting-Rights Groups On Senate Map

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MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) -- A Leon County circuit judge Wednesday approved a redistricting plan for the Florida Senate.

Judge George Reynolds approved a map proposed by voting-rights groups that have led a long-running legal challenge against current Senate districts. In doing so, Reynolds rejected a map proposed by the Senate.

Reynolds had the task of recommending to the Supreme Court either the Senate's redistricting proposal or one of several plans offered by a coalition of voting-rights groups including the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause Florida. The job fell to Reynolds after the House and Senate failed to come to an agreement on a map during a special session that ended in November.

Existing Senate districts are being set aside under a settlement between lawmakers and the voting-rights organizations, which sued to overturn the current map, arguing it violated a voter-approved ban on political gerrymandering.

(The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.)