Brown drops U.S. Supreme Court challenge to new CD5 map

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown has ended her federal lawsuit against the newly redrawn map for the Fifth Congressional District of Florida (CD5).

Brown had submitted a notice of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court back on April 25. But according to the News Service of Florida, attorneys for Brown filed a court document on Wednesday that said: “Plaintiffs now no longer wish to pursue their appeal in the United States Supreme Court and wish to dismiss said appeal.”

The incumbent Congresswoman is currently in a tight race against former state Sen. Alfred “Al” Lawson for the CD5 Democratic nomination. They are both graduates of Florida A&M University. The primary election will take place on August 30, 2016.

CD5, which Brown has represented since 1992, formerly ran north-south from Duval County to Orange County. But a July 9, 2015 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court ordered that District 5 be redrawn “in an east-west manner,” while remaining a minority-access seat, in order to comply with the Fair Districts Amendment.

Brown claimed that the changes would prevent an African American from winning the seat in 2016. But despite that criticism from Brown both of the black justices on the Florid Supreme Court, E.C. Perry and Peggy Quince, said that the new CD5 is fair to minority voters.

The new CD5 remains a minority-access seat with about 45 percent black voters. 

On April 20, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida rejected Brown’s legal challenge against the redrawn CD5. Brown’s decision drop her appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court means that the new map will stay in place.