Circuit Judge Terry Lewis says he's "extremely skeptical" about changing the state's congressional districts before the 2014 elections, according to Reuters.
Lewis held a three-hour hearing Thursday to consider what to do after he ruled on July 10 that current districts are illegal because they were drawn to benefit the Republican Party, Reuters reported.
In his July 10th ruling, Lewis ordered that two of the state's 27 districts be redrawn because they violated a standard approved by voters in 2010 to ban legislators from favoring or protecting incumbents, according to Reuters.
Lewis said he will try to have a final ruling by the end of next week, but signaled he is unlikely to go along with the groups that sued the Florida Legislature that want the districts changed now, Reuters reported.
The groups argued Lewis has the authority to postpone the Aug. 26 primary so that the changes can be made, but attorneys for the Florida Legislature dispute that, but state officials said it would create problems to move election dates, according to Reuters.
Florida's Republicans were stung by Lewis' decision to throw out the state's 2012 congressional redistricting plan, Reuters reported.
In the argument, Republican leaders said they "would like to exercise all due diligence to review the order and discuss it with our attorneys before making any public statements," said Katie Betta, an aide to Republican state Senate President Don Gaetz, who chaired the chamber's redistricting committees from 2010 to 2012, according to Reuters.
The legal fight began after the state House and Senate redrew Florida's congressional districts in 2012, Reuters reported. Republicans control both houses of the state legislature.
"What is clear to me from the evidence ... is that this group of Republican political consultants or operatives did in fact conspire to manipulate and influence the redistricting process," Lewis wrote in the 41-page ruling, according to Reuters.
