A judge in Florida said he would reject a congressional map because it violated the state constitution.
Leon County Circuit Judge Layne Smith said during a hearing that he will issue an injunction later this week blocking part of the map, siding with voting groups that sued state officials.
Smith said the new map is in violation of the Florida constitution because it eliminates the 5th congressional district where black residents make up 40% of the population.
The judge said that he wouldn't order the legislature to come back to session to draw a new map, and that he would probably create one of the maps that was previously passed by lawmakers.
State officials argue that the congressional district is not particularly compact, stretching more than 150 miles from Jacksonville to Tallahassee.
Taryn Fenske, communications director for the state of Florida, told Forbes on Wednesday that the state will appeal Smith's ruling to a higher court.
The legislature approved a congressional plan last month, after a back-and-forth between the office of the governor and the legislature. The map that was eventually passed and signed into law was proposed by the governor's staff after the legislature's original plan was vetoed. The map gives Republicans an advantage in most of the state's 28 congressional seats, and it splits the 5th district into several Republican-leaning districts. The decision to eliminate a racially gerrymandered 5th district drew a legal challenge from voting groups who said the map favored Republicans.
State officials across the country are working to change congressional maps this year in order to comply with the new U.S. Census data. The process has been sued in several states. A New York judge stopped the state's new map because it was unfair to Republicans. The Supreme Court upheld a new map approved by the court after a judge in North Carolina tossed out a map drawn by Republicans.