Equal Ground reminds voters get say which Florida Supreme Justices rule on redistricting

Equal Ground Education Fund ad.

The courts won’t make a decision on a challenge of Florida’s congressional map until after Election Day. But civil rights groups want voters to consider threats to their voting powers in mind come Election Day.

The Equal Ground Education Fund is launching three new digital ads targeting voters in minority-performing seats impacted by redistricting. The message? Don’t forget voters decide if many of the judges ruling on redistricting will keep their jobs.

“It’s important Equal Ground and other individual plaintiffs take on this effort,” said Genesis Robinson, political director for Equal Ground. “We have educated voters what took place this Legislative Session in terms of redistricting. We want this to be a continuum in that education effort.”

In display ads, messages are pointed toward judicial retention votes.

“Did you know five Florida Supreme Court Justices are up for a retention vote in this election?” read one. “These justices could decide the future of democracy in Florida. It’s up to you.”

Another video ad offers a similar message. “Should they stay or should they go?” text in the ad reads by a video of a judge’s hand swinging a gavel. “This election isn’t just about picking our next Governor and U.S. Senator.”

The ad goes on to remind voters they will fill in bubbles to retain or dismiss Florida Supreme Court Justices as well.

While the ads don’t explicitly mention the redistricting case, the connection between courts and the drawing of political boundaries should be clear to those who have followed the process this year or in the last decade.

During Session, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a congressional map approved by the Florida Legislature. He objected to the retention of districts that were drawn so minority communities controlled the outcome of elections, in particular singling out a district spanning from Tallahassee to Jacksonville represented now by Rep. Al Lawson, a Black Democrat. The Legislature ultimately left it to the Governor’s staff to draw a map taken up and approved during Special Session.

But civil rights groups said that map intentionally diminished minority voting power and advanced partisan interests. The new congressional map includes 20 districts where Republican Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election and just eight where Democrat Joe Biden won. But more important to a lawsuit brought by the Equal Ground Education Fund and other plaintiffs, it also eliminates two seats where Black voters determine the outcome of elections, including Lawson’s. A circuit judge earlier this year agreed plaintiffs would likely win that case and ordered an injuction on use of DeSantis’ map, but an appellate court struck down that decision, and the Florida Supreme Court declined to hear the case before the 2020 election.

The court battle continues and must go through a full trial, but in the meantime, Equal Ground Education Fund leaders say the efforts of their “We Draw The Lines” campaign continue.

Notably, the Florida Supreme Court served as final word on the congressional map the Florida Legislature drew in 2012, and they rejected it. Mid-decade, Florida’s high court ruled the Legislature violated the same Fair Districts language in the constitution that Equal Group Education Fund’s lawsuit leans on now.

“The courts have an ongoing role in reshaping and making decisions on the future of democracy in the state of Florida,” Robinson said. “Five justices will have a direct role in making that determination in the future.”

The ads do not advocate if justices should be retained or removed, and of note, Florida voters never have voted a justice our in a retention vote even when groups on the left and right campaigned in favor or such a snub.

The ads will target more than 150,000 Black and Brown voters in Florida’s 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 26th and 27th Congressional Districts, all seats with substantial minority populations.