Lewis to Rule Soon in Redistricting Case

By News Service of Florida

After hearing three hours of testimony and arguments Wednesday, Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis is weighing whether to accept a new version of congressional districts approved by the Legislature during a special session earlier this month. Lawyers for the state said the map, approved after Lewis struck down an earlier version of the districts, complies with the state's anti-gerrymandering constitutional standards approved by voters in 2010. But a coalition of voting-rights groups and individual voters who sued to get the first map overturned argued that the Legislature made only cosmetic changes to the plan and that Lewis should write his own. Lewis is also considering whether to delay the elections in districts affected by the rewrite. The judge said he would rule on the issue soon. The News Service of Florida will have a full story later Wednesday.