BROOKLYN, NY – Today, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, issued the following statement: 

“The Florida Supreme Court’s decision to leave in place a heavily-gerrymandered, Republican-drawn congressional map is egregious but not surprising. 

Partisan Republicans and their judicial co-conspirators in New York and Florida have decided that voters of color and communities of interest should be forced to play by a different set of rules. It’s outrageous. 

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore and the Court of Appeals majority recklessly put the redistricting process in the hands of a single, partisan Republican judge in Steuben County and an out-of-town, unelected special master. 

The broken and gravely flawed redistricting process unleashed by Chief Judge DiFiore resulted in a congressional map that degraded the Black and Latino populations in five New York City-based congressional districts and gave Republicans a partisan political advantage inconsistent with the voting patterns in New York State. The fix was in from the beginning. 

The violence done to New York State and Florida voters during the redistricting process must be remedied and the congressional maps implemented by partisan, Republican courts overturned. Anything less is unacceptable.”