Groups claim South Florida districts are racially gerrymandered for Hispanics in lawsuit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

May 25, 2024, 3:04 PM


MIAMI -- Progressive civic groups have challenged how four congressional districts and seven state House districts in South Florida were drawn by the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, claiming they were racially gerrymandered for Hispanics who are too diverse in Florida to be considered a protected minority.

The groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday, claiming the districts are unconstitutional and asking a federal court in South Florida to stop them from being used for any elections. Named as defendants were the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd. A message seeking comment was left Saturday at the Secretary of State’s office.

According to federal and state law, race can be considered during redistricting to protect minority voters if the minority group is cohesive and if majority-white voters are able to keep the minority group from electing their preferred candidates.

However, the Florida Legislature wrongly assumed that South Florida's Hispanic voters are cohesive when that's no longer the case since the white majority in Florida regularly votes in coalition with the Hispanic voters in South Florida, the lawsuit said.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/groups-claim-south-florida-districts-racially-gerrymandered-hispanics-110563444

[tornado34jh]

1. I guess I am confused about what the lawsuit is about

Even reading this article has left me confused. Miami have a majority Hispanic population. Many Hispanics, especially from Cuba, are conservative. I really am not sure what is going on here.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Although Cubans are the majority of the Hispanics there

Puerto Ricans come in 2nd and there are also Dominicans, Mexicans, and other Central/South Americans.

I think what many don't realize is that lumping together groups as "Hispanics" or "Asians", who descend from many different nationalities, can often be considered insulting to them.

I.e., the money quote from the article -

However, the Florida Legislature wrongly assumed that South Florida's Hispanic voters are cohesive

This is like saying that Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans "are the same" culturally, with the same interests, which is what is happening here with lumping together Spanish-speaking groups.

Since they mention what are basically district lines that snake through counties, I expect they are complaining about lines drawn to maximize GOP districts by carving out places to include a majority of conservative ethnic Cuban voters who form coalitions with conservative non-Hispanic whites, at the expense of the other Hispanic groups there (and also most likely diluting the power of other minorities including some of the larger non-Hispanic Caribbean groups like Jamaicans & Haitians, and any non-Caribbean descended blacks, etc).

[IronLionZion]

2. All those districts are held by Republicans

so I guess the liberal group who filed the lawsuit thinks that might change with fairer redistricting? Non-Cuban Latinos are more liberal.

[Cheezoholic]

3. Didn't SCOTUS take care of this a couple days ago with the Charleston ruling?

Basically saying it's ok to racially gerrymander? Or did I miss something.

[rpannier]

6. Because the decision was written by Alito the intent is not strait forward. They have an odd view of

political and racial
I think trhey would agree that racial s wrong, but it's never easy to determine with them. The goal post moves so often

https://www.npr.org/2024/05/23/g-s1-292/supreme-court-south-carolina-gerrymandering-case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday made it far more difficult to challenge state redistricting plans as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. By a vote of 6-to-3, along ideological lines, the court upheld a redistricting map drawn by the South Carolina legislature, a map that a lower court found had resulted in “the bleaching of African American voters” from a district.

snip

Writing for the court’s six conservatives, Justice Samuel Alito said that the South Carolina map was a partisan gerrymander, which is legal, not a racial gerrymander, which would be illegal under the Constitution. In short, he said that the map achieved the GOP’s political goals, nothing more.

[C Moon]

4. Shocking. I've always looked at it this way: The GOP is all about the rich.

They don't want to help anyone but the rich.
They don't want too many rich.
They need votes, so they have to lie and cheat to win.

Now, with trump, they are hoping this will be the end of them needing to lie and cheat.