MIAMI – In response to a lawsuit, a federal judge ruled Sunday that the city of Miami commissioners’ proposed district map, purportedly drawn to address issues of racial gerrymandering present in the current boundaries, failed to make significant enough changes to fix the problems he originally identified.
Instead, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore chose a new map drawn by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented plaintiffs in the case, including the NAACP.
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Both the old commission map — struck down in May — and the city’s proposed fix, split up neighborhoods, including Coconut Grove, and split the Flagami neighborhood lengthwise, giving its highly-conservative voters weight in two districts.
When commissioners adopted its proposed map in June, city consultant claimed its proposal “better reflects the (commission’s) political and policy choices.”
Rather than unite neighborhoods, the consultant said that the commission desired to “unpack” them.
Current map (left) and city’s proposed fix (right):
In his order, Moore found that commissioners’ proposed map “fails to correct the constitutional violations it found substantially likely to exist” in the current maps and that it “perpetuates the impact” of the rejected map’s “unconstitutional racial gerrymandering of the election districts.”
After rejecting the second map, the court had the option to draw its own map. Instead, the judge chose one of the plaintiffs’ proposed maps that he said “keeps traditional neighborhoods and communities of interest united.”
The new map keeps Coconut Grove, Flagami and a number of other neighborhoods within one district. It also keeps a number of majority-Black neighborhoods, including Overtown and Liberty City, fully within District 5, represented by Christine King.
Judge’s adopted map:
(Scroll to see an interactive map of the new districts.)
The judge rejected concerns from commissioners that the ACLU’s “P4″ plan would pack conservative voters into District 4, currently represented by Manolo Reyes.
“(T)hat P4 results in a different political outcome is irrelevant at this point in the Court’s review,” Moore wrote.
Read the court order:
Commissioner’s opponent now back in District 1
Moore’s order didn’t touch on allegations made by an opponent of District 1 Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla that the city’s proposed map was drawn with politics in mind and constituted “willful election interference.”
Opponent Miguel Angel Gabela claimed de la Portilla leveraged the redistricting process to “surgically remove” him from the district just over four months from Miami’s November general election.
Gabela’s home is now back in District 1 under the court-ordered map.
“We are pleased that the court threw out the City’s redrawn redistricting map and put Mr. Gabela’s house back into D1 so he can continue his campaign against Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla,” Gabela’s attorney, David Winker, said in a statement to Local 10 News on Sunday. “This ruling reinforces that the judge is not going to allow the City to continue this nonsense of protecting Commissioner Carollo from the judgment against him and Commissioners redistricting out political opponents.”
Reactions and what’s next
Moore ordered the city to submit the maps to Miami-Dade’s elections office by Monday. Under his ruling, the new map will go into effect beginning with this November’s general election.
Winker told Local 10 News that the maps will be final for November’s election. The city can appeal, he said, but not in time to affect the next election, as the county’s elections department previously stated it needed a map by Aug. 1.
Plaintiff Yanelis Valdes, the director of organizing and advocacy for Engage Miami and a plaintiff in the case, said the ruling marks a “new day for Miami voters who will finally have a fair say in our elections.”
“The court’s decision to reject the city’s gerrymander and order the plaintiffs’ map means Miami’s communities will get fair representation in government this November,” she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, ACLU attorney Nicholas Warren said the court “got it right today by ordering a map that protects the will of the people.”
“Today is a big win for racial justice and democracy in Miami,” he said in a statement.
City Attorney Victoria Mendez said the city plans to appeal the ruling.
“We appreciate the Court’s valuable insight into the City’s Redistricting process, but the court waited too long in making this determination pursuant to caselaw,” she said in a statement. “The court did not truly give the City Commission the presumption of good faith with regard to their legislative functions.”
Interactive map of new districts, created by plaintiffs:
Editor’s note: A version of this article misstated that the city would not be able to appeal the decision. The article has been corrected to state that it can. Photos in the article have also been edited to correctly represent the city’s proposed remedy. The original version of the article used a largely-similar draft map rather than the finalized version.