A federal trial is underway in Tampa this week as a panel of three judges hears arguments in a lawsuit challenging a Tampa Bay-area Senate district, alleging the district map was racially gerrymandered in violation of constitutional rights. The suit was filed by the ACLU of Florida and several voters from the Tampa Bay area. Plaintiffs claim the 2022-adopted district map improperly packs Black voters into District 16, diluting their electoral influence, particularly in Pinellas County. District 16, currently represented by Democratic State Sen. Darryl Rouson, stretches across Tampa Bay, linking the southern portion of St. Petersburg with parts of Tampa and Hillsborough County. “We're not asking for special treatment,” St. Petersburg resident and plaintiff Meiko Seymour said in an interview with 10 Tampa Bay. “We're asking for fair representation.” Seymour and others argue that crossing the bay to group voters of color into a single district limits their influence in their direct neighborhood. “When lines are drawn in a way to pack Black voters into one district, it actually weakens our influence across the rest of the city,” Seymour said. “It keeps us from having an actual seat at the table where decisions are being made that impact our schools, our streets and our future.” The lawsuit names Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Senate President Ben Albritton as defendants. In a pre-trial brief, Albritton's legal team contends that race did not predominate in the creation of the district. Instead, they argue, the lines were drawn using established benchmarks and in compliance with Florida’s “Fair Districts” constitutional amendments, which prohibit gerrymandering and require good-faith efforts to avoid partisan favoritism. Previous maps also contained districts spanning Tampa Bay. In his own filing, Byrd suggested that the ACLU’s preferred alternative map was designed to benefit the Democratic Party, a claim plaintiffs deny. “It’s certainly not about politics,” Seymour said. “It’s about fair representation, and I think we deserve that.” The bench trial is expected to continue through the week in U.S. District Court- Middle District of Florida.