The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, Harvard Election Law Clinic, and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Jacksonville NAACP Branch, the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, the Northeast Chapter of the ACLU of Florida, Florida Rising, and 10 individual city residents challenging the Jacksonville City Council’s newly drawn redistricting maps as racially gerrymandered under the 14th Amendment. The lawsuit alleges that the map packs Black voters into four City Council districts, diminishing their influence in surrounding districts. The suit also challenges the districts as illogical and noncompact in violation of the Jacksonville City Charter.
On October 12, 2022, the District Court issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the City of Jacksonville from using the original map in future elections. The plaintiffs succeeded in showing a likelihood of success on the merits of their racial gerrymandering claim.
In response to the injunction, the City of Jacksonville put forward a new map for the District Court to consider. On December 19, 2022, the District Court rejected that map because it failed to remedy the racial gerrymandering in the original map. The District Court ordered that upcoming elections use the new map proposed by the Plaintiffs.
The City of Jacksonville sought to stay both the District Court’s original injunction order and its order rejecting the City’s revised map. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to stay the District Court’s decision on November 7, 2022 and again on January 6, 2023. These decisions mean the court-ordered map will be used for the 2023 elections. The ACLU of Florida plans to prove the full case at trial and secure a full remedy that finally puts an end to Jacksonville's racially gerrymandered Council and School Board districts.
