Court documents and emails that are part of the redistricting lawsuit show that the map was drawn and paid for by Democratic consultants in consultation with the Florida Democratic Party, which is no longer involved in the lawsuit.

…Days after the meeting, that map was submitted into evidence as an alternative plan as part of the lawsuit. The suit was officially filed by groups including the League of Women Voters of Florida and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group.

Plaintiffs in the case argue that congressional maps passed by lawmakers in 2012 are political documents that violate Amendment 6, one of the so-called “Fair District” amendments passed by voters in 2010. The amendments were an attempt to remove politics from the redistricting process by no longer allowing new maps to explicitly “favor or disfavor a political party.”

..The lawsuit is being bankrolled by the National Democratic Redistricting Trust, which was created in 2009 to “provide legal support for Democratic redistricting programs,” according to its website. It’s the group leading the lawsuit.  “Final say would … come from recommendations from the attorneys, and it would go through the Trust,” said Brian Smoot, the trust’s director, during a 2013 deposition taken as part of the case.