Florida Republicans pushed through a new congressional map on Wednesday, a move that could give the GOP a significant advantage in the November midterms.

The vote came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Louisiana redistricting map that had created a second majority-Black district, a decision that voting-rights advocates say effectively guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Democrats and good-government groups in Florida said the new map violates the state's own constitution. State Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, spoke on the House floor against the proposal.

"This map flies directly against the face of the people of Florida who said they wanted fair districts," she said, "and the people of Florida were not included in this discussion."

The Fair Districts amendments were passed by 63% of Florida voters in 2010. But the maps lawmakers just approved were drawn by Gov. Ron DeSantis' office, not by the Legislature. DeSantis predicted the U.S. Supreme Court would weaken the Voting Rights Act to support his map, and hours before the vote, it did.

Jessica Lowe-Minor, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, said the state's constitution offers protections other states do not have. She said she hopes courts will strike down the map.

"We do believe that this represents an unconstitutional, partisan gerrymander of our state's congressional districts," she said, "and we hope that the Florida court system or the federal court system, wherever this ultimately plays out, will determine that this map cannot stand."

DeSantis argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Louisiana's map invalidates Florida's constitutional ban on districts that deny "the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process." Democrats and the League of Women Voters have vowed to file lawsuits challenging the map. Florida's primary elections are scheduled for August.

Source: Public News Service