Republicans suffer surprise LOSS in Florida

this is democracy watch I'm joined by my co-host voting rights attorney and founder of democracy docket Mark Elias so Mark we've got some surprising news about the potential for another Democratic seat this time in Florida can you speak about the lawsuit challenging Florida's Congressional map yeah good news right we don't expect good news uh out of redistricting in Florida but uh there has been a long-standing lawsuit that's been going on in Florida under that State's Fair District amendments which were put in law by a ballot initiative uh several years ago put actually in the State Constitution and this litigation's been going on my Law Firm represents the plaintiffs over whether or not the gerrymandered map that Ron DeSantis put forced into place whether it violates those uh that those amendments and uh in the last few days the two sides have reached a stipulation which is an agreement on facts that really make it very likely that we will see the restoration of a black opportunity District in Florida for 2014 for 2024. now we're talking about Florida's Fifth District what happened to Florida's Fifth District during the most recent redistricting process it got obliterated this was a district that was held by an African-American Al Lawson it was historically a black opportunity District when the State of Florida went about redistricting the legislature the Republican legislature knew that it couldn't do away with this as a black opportunity District Ron DeSantis ready to run for president didn't care he forced the Republicans to enact a map that violates the state's Constitution then he went off to Iowa where he seems to be very unpopular by the way and now in the litigation over this the Republican legislature is kind of throwing up his hands and being like okay maybe this was a a problem and so that led to this stipulation well tell us about the agreement that was struck here like were there compromises you would assume that in an agreement both sides did give a little so you know why did the the pro-democracy side agree to this deal at the end yeah so look this is one of these places where you know you had to balance the law with being right which is always good with uh speed the need to create to remedy wrongs in time for 2024. so the original lawsuit that had been filed challenged a number of districts throughout the state including some districts that violated another provision of the State Constitution that perhaps partisan gerrymandering but the most egregious thing that everyone agrees happened uh in the in the most recent redistricting was around this fifth congressional district which took a reliable African-American district and really just destroyed it so the decision was made strategic litigation decision was made to focus in on that District the and to enter into this stipulation that basically stipulates that what happened in that fifth congressional district was that black voters had a diminishment of their opportunity to elect their candidate of choice which is directly what the State Constitution prohibits no I mean we do have a lot of time between now and the 2024 election why kind of give up on those other things when when these are virtuous fights to have again you gotta balance right you got to balance the the what you can get for the next election of what you can get for the for in the future and you know my Law Firm challenged the 2011 map okay which was also violated the State Constitution and that litigation took six or seven years got it until we finally won but it wasn't until after 2018 that we actually saw a lawful map in Florida and as as the folks involved in litigating this case had to weigh you know do do you continue fighting on all fronts understanding that the Republicans will drag this case out for years and years and years or do you focus in on what is the most concrete and most palpable harm which is the harm that these black voters faced in in the Fifth District so that was what uh the lawyers involved in this team uh in this case apparently did is there still the opportunity to pursue further litigation against partisan Jerry vendors and other districts that may be unfair or unfairly gerrymandered in the future after we focus on you know the most important one right in front of us not in this case so you know someone else could always bring another set of plaintiffs could always bring a legal challenge there is also a federal court case that's going on uh that also focuses on this map as a impermissible racial gerrymander uh but it for this state case you know this case is now going to proceed focused on the fifth congressional district okay now we alluded to uh the other cases that are ongoing before obviously one of those states where we're seeing this fight play out is Alabama as we expected we're watching Republicans having submitted a map that violates the requirements in Allen versus Milligan to create two majority black districts what happens next so there was just a hearing on this and I gotta say the state of Alabama showed up in its full defiant Glory you know they showed up in court and were and were like yeah we we don't want to create a second majority black District so we didn't and we think that essentially the plaintiffs in this case should have to start all over and proving that there isn't it even is a violation of the Voting Rights Act those arguments just took place I don't expect they're going to go anywhere as I've said before you know at the end of this rainbow is a court-drawn map and that's we're going to wind up with and I I is that the three-judge panel that that struck down the first map you know and have lived this case have been Vindicated by this by the U.S Supreme Court I strongly suspect that they are going to wind up imposing their own map they hired a special Master which was basically an expert to draw maps and I expect that they will ask that person to draw a map now are Republicans trying the same thing in Louisiana they're trying the same thing in Louisiana the Republicans just don't want to comply with the law right you know but yes they're doing the same thing in Louisiana again another state where they lost a uh a Voting Rights Act claim again my Law Firm involved in both Alabama and Louisiana for disclosure purposes uh but they they they lost the case and now in Louisiana and they went to the U.S Supreme Court and their argument in the U.S Supreme Court was oh look wait we're just like Alabama we're just like you know Alabama and Allen V Milligan because Brian they thought they were going to win Helen D Milligan and when they lost now they're like we're nothing we're nothing like Alabama nothing like Alabama never heard of Alabama we are so far from Alabama we're a totally different state we're Louisiana but they're going to lose there as well all right can can you give an update on the prospect of a new black District in Georgia yeah so look I've said this I've been on record we're gonna get uh there's going to be a new majority African-American District in Alabama in Louisiana and in Georgia and I'm feeling more and more bullish now about Florida in Georgia that case has been set for trial this fall and I expect that after that trial you will again uh once again you'll have a state that um will be have found to have violated the Voting Rights Act section two and there will be a new um African-American uh opportunity District in the Atlanta area and finally what about Texas What's the progress on that map everything's bigger in Texas you know everything's bigger in Texas and and because it's bigger it's more complicated so there's just a lot more seats at issue in Texas there are the possibility of creating new uh black opportunity districts and new Hispanic opportunity districts so that case is still lagging a little bit further behind time-wise hopefully that case will get resolved end of the year in time for 2024 but I would put it behind Alabama and Louisiana and Georgia and now Florida so what are we looking at in total in terms of new black opportunity districts across they're they're mostly collected in the South so across these states yeah so I think one in Alabama one in Louisiana one in Georgia Florida is is is an additional one although it's really the restoration of one so it's a new one but uh but it but it never should have been done away with um so that's four uh and then in South Carolina case we haven't talked about that's going before The Supreme Court uh under a different Theory a racial gerrymandering Theory there may be one there and then Texas you know we could be seeing three to five okay and uh I mean that's enough based on the fact that the margin in the house right now is just five seats that is enough to more than flip that margin just on violations of section two of the Voting Rights Act alone Mark which is which is the reason which is the reason why Brian I feel like there has not been enough focus on the fact that Kevin McCarthy the Speaker of the House was putting calls into the Alabama legislature essentially telling them to violate a federal court order because he knows what the Matthew just did he's done and he knows that if that if these states have to comply with federal law in the U.S Constitution his speakership is in real Jeopardy yeah yeah uh and do you anticipate that all of these cases will be resolved by 2024 barring Texas which is like you said moving a little bit slower yeah Alabama will be Louisiana will be Georgia will be and now we can add to that Florida okay those will be done for 2024. well we'll leave it there uh again thank you to the work that you and your team have done to protect voting rights across the country in particular uh in these cases where again like you said you're representing the plaintiffs here so for anybody watching if you want to help support Mark and his team please sign up for democracy docket it's the free news outlet that Mark founded to keep you up to date on everything voting and elections the link is right here on the screen it's also in the post description of this video I'm Brian teller Cohen I'm Mark Elias this is democracy watch [Music]

Channel: Brian Tyler Cohen

Views: 652,475

Keywords: Brian Tyler Cohen, Trump, Republicans, Democrats, brian cohen, politics, news

Id: rJwMDyEpNNY

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Lord_Sports]

Gerrymandering is what these GOP RED States and do racist behavior and turn around and and take a black community and break it up for those white folks power. Power is all they want because this is all they show. Vote these GOP folks out of office in 2024 2026. This is a big win. GOP want division. Lets never let them get away with Racism.