Congresswoman Corrine Brown (D-FL) has filed an amendment to her lawsuit challenging the newly-approved Congressional Districts. The new Congressional 5th district which Brown represents, will run East to West from Jacksonville out towards the Tallahassee area. Brown has been joined by dozens of voters in challenging the new district, stating that although the current 5th Congressional slithers through 9 counties, starting in Jacksonville and ending near Northwest Orange County, it fulfills the original goals underlying its creation, that of being a minority access seat. Brown argues the new districts lowers the black voting age of the district from 50% to 45%, which will no longer allows blacks to elect the candidate of their choice. However, election data from 2012 suggests the new district will also elect a black democrat. In fact, two black democrats have expressed interest in running for the new 5th district, including a former state Senator and the Mayor of Tallahassee.
During a press conference earlier this month, Brown likened the proposed changes in her district to slavery. The Florida Supreme Court sharply rebuked Brown’s theatrics, saying “The efforts to paint this process as partisan or invoke the antebullum period are an unjustified attack on the integrity of our judicial system”. Citing the very real early struggle of blacks to earn the right to vote, justice Peggy Quince continued, “It is an insult to their struggle for politicians to now use that sacrifice for their personal benefit”.
