Florida Judge Approves New Map, Allows Elections To Go Forward
A Leon County judge upheld a second draft of the state's congressional districts in a decision issued Friday, but shelved the new map until after the November elections.
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A Leon County judge upheld a second draft of the state's congressional districts in a decision issued Friday, but shelved the new map until after the November elections.
Lawmakers did everything they were required to do in response to a Leon County judge's decision last month to strike down two congressional districts, attorneys for the Legislature told the judge Wednesday in the latest round in a long-running legal fight about the state's political lines.
Proposed special elections in the seven congressional districts redrawn by the Legislature earlier this week would have to wait until at least spring of next year, Secretary of State Ken Detzner's office said in a court filing Friday.
Florida Legislators kicked off a special session Thursday byproposing tweaks to seven of the 27 congressional districts to comply with a judge's ruling.
Lawmakers are back in Tallahassee Thursday for a special session to draw a new map for the state's congressional districts.
Florida Legislators returning to the state Capitol are facing the task of redrawing the state's 27 congressional districts.
Florida legislators will return to Tallahassee to adopt a new congressional map.
With an impending elections coming, a question looms of when to redraw congressional districts ruled unconstitutional by a judge.
A Florida judge is holding a hearing Thursday to decide when the state's congressional districts will be redrawn.
It will be virtually impossible for lawmakers to redraw two congressional districts deemed unconstitutional by a Tallahassee judge before the Nov. 4 general election, lawyers for the Department of State, the Legislature and county elections supervisors argued in court Thursday.
Republican legislative leaders said Tuesday they do not plan to appeal a judge's ruling that struck down Florida's congressional map but want lawmakers to be able to redraw the disputed districts after this fall's elections.
One day after a landmark legal ruling, some people are question whether the change to Florida's political landscape will have an impact on other states' drawing their congressional districts.
A highly unusual statement came out of the 1st District Court of Appeal Thursday on the drawing on new political maps.
A coalition of voting-rights groups failed to prove during a recent trial that congressional districts drawn by lawmakers in 2012 violated constitutional standards for redistricting, according to a filing by attorneys for the Legislature.
A trial which challenges whether Florida legislators followed the law when drawing up new political maps for congress is expected to come to an end this week.
A Republican consultant trying to keep hundreds of pages of redistricting-related documents secret is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the release of the records in the latest twist in a legal battle over Florida's congressional districts.
Overturning an appellate court ruling, the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a Tallahassee judge to allow a GOP consultant's documents to be considered in a trial about the Legislature's 2012 redistricting effort, a move one justice called "unprecedented."
An aide to former House Speaker Dean Cannon admitted Tuesday that he made a mistake by secretly feeding redistricting plans to a Republican political consultant in 2012, but denied that the arrangement tainted the redrawing of the state's congressional districts.
Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford is expected to testify Tuesday in a high stakes trial which could decide the future of of the state's congressional districts.
Should legislators who draw up the districts that will help keep them in office be forced to testify about how they came up with the district?
The Republican-led state Legislature wants a legal challenge to redistricting map of the Florida Senate thrown out.
For all the billions spent by the Obama and Romney campaigns, Republican and Democratic parties, and countless outside groups, we may wake up November 7th to a Washington that is virtually unchanged.
In Texas Republicans have taken efforts to restrict access to voting a step farther. Texas Republicans are calling for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act.
The Florida Senate is breathing a collective sigh of relief Friday morning, after learning the Florida Supreme Court signed off on the Senate's revised re-districting plan. That means all Fl0rida Senate districts are now official, and candidates can file to run within them.
