A judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th district granted the city of Miami’s emergency motion to temporarily pause the new voting map.
The plaintiff, the American Civil Liberties Union, filed their response ahead of the Wednesday deadline. Now it is up to a federal appeals judge to determine what map will be used.
The new voting map would shift the boundaries of the city's commission districts. The new map was drawn by attorneys with the ACLU, representing a coalition of Miami residents who sued the city challenging new district lines approved by commissioners in 2022.
"That's the critical issue here," said NBC6 political analyst Mike Hernandez. "How involved are citizens? How much do they care about the judge's ruling? Is it business as usual or do they really get involved and say we don't feel we are being represented by the current map?"
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Three commissioners are currently running for reelection in November -- Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Sabina Covo and Manolo Reyes.
"If you are on the ballot, which some of them are, you are up against the clock in making sure you know these voters and that you can get their support at the ballot box." Hernandez said.
Commissioner Reyes represents District 4.
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“My main concern is that we have diversity in the City of Miami Commission,” Reyes said in a statement to NBC6. “But based on the judges' decision today, it seems that diversity was exchanged for partisanship.”
Commissioner Covo was optimistic about the change and called it a 'win for democracy.'
"Early on I expressed the importance of keeping communities unified and following the spirit of fair districts as outlined in our Florida constitution," Covo said in a statement. "Today’s ruling by Judge Moore affirms that, and while Morningside will no longer be part of our district, I look forward to representing the entire Grove community."
Hernandez does not believe this is the end.
"Ultimately this is a coma, not a period, because there are interest groups that say the City of Miami is very diverse and it needs to have districts representative of those who live there, but there will also be countersuits who say I like the districts as they are," Hernandez said.
