A federal court has denied Jefferson County’s request to delay an order that it redraw its County Commission district map, a map the judge overturned last week as being too heavily based on race.

Jefferson County, in turn, appealed her ruling on its stay request to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The order of the district judge remains in place unless the 11th Circuit grants a stay,” County Attorney Theo Lawson said. “If the 11th Circuit grants to stay, that means that order is frozen until the 11th Circuit can rule on it.”

The county already has appealed U.S. District Judge Madeline Haikala’s primary decision from last week. In it, Haikala said county officials had failed to show during a trial that race was not the major factor when the commission drafted new district lines in 2021. Her ruling opened the door to the possibility that the commission could flip from majority Republican to majority Democratic if the map were changed to draw three majority Black districts and two majority white districts, rather than the other way around.

Haikala gave the county 30 days to file a report outlining its efforts toward drafting a new district map. County officials had argued that time frame would not give officials and candidates time to meet their deadlines before the March primaries.

However, the judge in Thursday’s ruling dismissed those arguments, saying the election is more than a year away. Haikala said courts had ruled that changes should not be made “on the eve of an election;” however, she found no precedent for staying rulings this far away from the election.

In denying the stay, Haikala wrote that the commission had not strongly demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on appeal. She cited a precedent case that say, “Given that the district court found the Enacted Plan is substantially likely to be unconstitutional, we do not see how Appellants would be irreparably harmed by using a different map.

“On the other hand, the plaintiffs will experience a substantial injury if the Commission conducts the 2026 election under an unconstitutional districting plan,” Haikala wrote, saying there is no do-over in elections.

Coincidentally, Cara McClure, who filed the lawsuit contesting the county’s new district lines, and Lamar Black attended the County Commission’s meeting Thursday morning. They weren’t on the commission’s agenda, they knew they couldn’t speak and were told before entering the courthouse to leave their hand-made signs outside.

But the shirts they wore — Fight For Fair Maps— spoke volumes in their hopes to get commission district lines redrawn.

“If it’s a fight that you want, it’s a fight that you’ll get,” McClure said. “You will be seeing us.”