During his lengthy testimony, Kelly faulted previous Florida Supreme Court decisions related to redistricting, raised questions about how the legislature has handled redistricting at times, and made comments that did not match statements he made in his own depositions. Were.
Kelly also insisted that the map DeSantis recently promoted in the campaign as helping Republicans win the House last year was not done for “partisan” reasons or to help any incumbent. – Factors that are not allowed under Florida’s voter-approved anti-gerrymandering standards.
In one notable exchange, Kelly insisted to one of the lead lawyers questioning him that he had no idea that he would increase the percentage of white voters in four districts by splitting the seat held by Rep. Al Lawson. Were increasing.
“I had no reason to look at the racial and ethnic data in North Florida,” Kelly testified.
The ongoing federal lawsuit is separate from a separate legal challenge in state court, though both focus primarily on Lawson’s vacated seat. In the state case, a Florida circuit judge ruled earlier this month that the redrawn districts violate the state Constitution and ordered the GOP-led Legislature to draw a new map. That decision has been appealed and will be considered by the state appeals court later this fall.
Just before the trial the state case was limited in scope to one day of legal arguments and testimony from no witnesses.
Lawyers representing groups and individuals suing in federal court — including democracy advocacy organizations Common Cause and the NAACP — plan to bring in experts to talk about Florida’s history and whether it can be shown That what the Governor did was discriminatory, even though there was a victory. This is very direct evidence that digs into the conspiracies behind the scenes.
Instead, the legal fight is focusing on DeSantis’ unusual decision to insert himself into the redistricting process by introducing his own maps and then vetoing the initial proposal by the Republican-dominated Legislature, which would have drawn the Jacksonville-based district. Would have been preserved where black voters remain a substantial minority. DeSantis’ general counsel at the time argued that the district greatly reduced Black voting power.
Kelly was asked Tuesday about DeSantis’ motivation for pushing the map forward despite the legislature’s initial reluctance. DeSantis had argued that Lawson’s old district – which stretched about 200 miles from Jacksonville to west of Tallahassee – violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Former President George W. Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers pressured Kelly to cite a court decision that supported DeSantis’ argument that Lawson’s former district was unconstitutional. Kelly admitted he didn’t know.
When pointed out by plaintiffs’ attorneys that the Florida Supreme Court determined the Legislature established Lawson’s district in 2015 in violation of the state’s Fair Districts Amendment, Kelly responded at least twice that “Florida The Supreme Court got it wrong.”
Kelly made the claim after he said in a June deposition in the state case that he had not read the 2015 Florida Supreme Court decision that resulted in the creation of the seat. When asked about this outside the courtroom, Kelly responded that “reading” the entire verdict “is different from understanding that the outcome was wrong.”
Kelly also said that at times he felt the legislature’s initial analysis about redistricting was not “fair” and that he was not happy with how legislators treated an expert who was asked to testify on the governor’s proposal in legislative hearings. Was brought in to defend.
Common Cause vice president for programming Kathy Feng, who was present for the trial, argued that Kelly’s testimony showed that the DeSantis administration was struggling to explain its actions.
“There is a lot of distortion, a lot of fabrications, a lot of denial of history,” Feng said.