For years, Democratic Rep. Al Lawson's Florida district has stretched like a rubber band from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, scooping up as many Black voters as possible to comply with requirements that minority communities get grouped together so they can select their own leaders and flex their power in Washington.

But the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is taking the unusual step of asking Florida's Supreme Court whether Lawson's plurality-Black district can be broken up into whiter — and more Republican — districts.