A federal appeals panel upheld an order requiring the city to use City Council districts drawn by plaintiffs in a federal redistricting case.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard waived a requirement that candidates in some districts live there for six months.

The city of Jacksonville has asked a federal court on Wednesday to waive a requirement that City Council candidates live in their districts for six months before qualifying. All 19 council seats are up for election in March, including 14 districts and five at-large seats. U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard struck down two of the City Council’s previous attempts at

The Jacksonville City Council will appeal a judge’s order requiring the city to implement an election map drawn by civil rights activists. The council met in a private meeting with city lawyers Thursday and told the lawyers to file a motion to stay U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard’s order. The city already tried earlier to stay another of Howard’s

According to the version of events that Jacksonville’s city lawyers told a federal court, the City Council passed a redistricting map last month that carefully considered many factors: The council wanted a map that was “as logical and compact a geographical pattern as possible,” one that honored planning district boundaries, major roads and waterways, one that considered socioeconomic demographics and

The Jacksonville City Council failed to fix the problems with its original redistricting plan, plaintiffs argued Friday in a court filing a sking a federal judge to reject the city’s second attempt at drawing new district lines. Last month, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard struck the city’s council and Duval County’s School Board district maps as racial gerrymanders, finding

The Jacksonville City Council plans to vote Friday on new district maps after the old ones were struck down as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, yet after three days of committee meetings, it’s not clear that the council has enough votes to approve the maps. Last month, U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard struck the city’s council and Duval County’s School Board

A day after Jacksonville argued in court that it didn’t have enough time to pass new redistricting maps, City Council President Terrance Freeman rejected that. “The charge of this committee is to complete new maps,” he said at the beginning of the first redistricting committee meeting. “And we will do so. This committee will meet the court’s established timeline.” Last week,

The Jacksonville City Council has decided to appeal a federal court order that found the city had likely racially gerrymandered its district lines. While waiting on the appeal, the council will try to draw a new map to comply with the court order. Council President Terrance Freeman said the council “disagrees with the outcome of the Court order. Therefore, we

A federal judge has struck down seven Jacksonville City Council and three Duval School Board districts in the racial gerrymandering lawsuit brought against the city. U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard found that City Council likely used race as a predominant factor in drawing the maps in violation of the 14th Amendment. “The evidence that the Challenged Districts are the