Florida's two senior Democrats in Congress are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Tallahassee against the Democratic National Committee (DNC), according to Local 10 senior political reporter Michael Putney.

Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings of Broward claim in the suit that the DNC Rules Committee unconstitutionally and illegally stripped Florida of all its delegates to next summer's Democratic national convention.

The DNC punished Florida Democrats because the Legislature, controlled by Republicans, decided to leap-frog other states and set Jan. 29, 2009 as the date for the state's presidential primary, Putney reported.

For years, the Florida primary had been held in March. Democrats in the Legislature voiced only half-hearted objections at the time, despite warnings from the DNC to oppose the measure. They didn't and it passed easily because members of both parties were tired of Florida primary voters being irrelevant in the nominating process, said Putney.

"It's a case of fundamental rights versus party rules," Nelson said at a Washington, D.C., news conference.

Nelson and Hastings also complained that the DNC unfairly forced the Democratic presidential candidates to sign the so-called "Four State Pledge" that forbids them from campaigning publicly in Florida until after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina hold their primaries.

"The candidates can go everywhere else in the country to campaign," said Hastings. "They can't come to Florida and talk about the Everglades, immigration, insurance and all the issues of interest to the state of Florida," he said.