Judge Rules Parts Of Florida Election Law Unconstitutional; Says It Suppresses Black Voters

On Friday, a federal judge struck down parts of Florida’s suppressive election law, S.B. 90, ruling that it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The court will also retain jurisdiction of the case for ten years, during which Florida may not enact any law concerning drop boxes or line relief without permission from the court, known as pre-clearance.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker found portions of the law unconstitutional, including when ballot drop boxes could be used. The law mandated that they be guarded and available only when elections offices and early voting sites are open, with an exception to those in supervisors’ offices.

Walker also struck down new requirements on third-party voter registration organizations and found “engaging in any activity with the intent to influence or effect of influencing a voter” as written as part of the new law also is unconstitutional.

“The solicitation definition can be read to prohibit ‘line warming’ activities,” Walker wrote. “Line warming refers generally to the non-partisan provision of aid to voters waiting in line to vote, such as giving out water, fans, snacks, chairs, ponchos, and umbrellas.”

In May 2021, on the same day Governor DeSantis signed S.B. 90 into law, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), with co-counsel Covington and Burling LLP and Nellie L. King Office, filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Florida NAACP, Disability Rights Florida, and Common Cause challenging S.B. 90, arguing that it created barriers and burdens that disproportionately impacted the ability of Black voters, Latino voters, and voters with disabilities to cast their ballot.

In his decision, Judge Walker wrote, “In so ruling, this Court recognizes that the right to vote, and the VRA particularly, are under siege.”

“In Florida, white Floridians outpace Black Floridians in almost every socioeconomic metric. In Florida, since the end of the Civil War, politicians have attacked the political rights of Black citizens. In Florida, though we have come far, the realistic fact is that we still have a long, long way to go,” Walker wrote.

“For the past 20 years, the majority in the Florida Legislature has attacked the voting rights of its Black constituents. They have done so not as, in the words of Dr. King, ‘vicious racists, with [the] governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification,’ but as part of a cynical effort to suppress turnout among their opponents’ supporters. That, the law does not permit.”

Walker pointed to Florida’s history of attempting to suppress black voters, including unfair voting roll purges.

“Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern,” he wrote.

“At some point, when the Florida Legislature passes law after law disproportionately burdening Black voters, this court can no longer accept that the effect is incidental. Based on the indisputable pattern set out above, this court finds that, in the past 20 years, Florida has repeatedly sought to make voting tougher for Black voters because of their propensity to favor Democratic candidates.”

“Today’s decision is a huge win for Florida voters,” said LDF Senior Counsel Amia Trigg. “This decision recognized that S.B. 90 is the latest stain in a long history of voting laws which restrict Black political participation. As Judge Walker acknowledged, this is part of a larger assault on voting rights that continues across the country. We’re seeing the right to vote being targeted at every level of government. Therefore, it is crucial that we continue this fight.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis denounced the ruling as “performative partisanship.”

“It was not unforeseen, because we typically set our clocks to getting a partisan outcome in that court. I would not want to be on the receiving end of that appeal if I were a judge, because I think that’s going to be reversed on appeal. The only question is how quickly it gets reversed on appeal,” the governor said.

 

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