A lawyer for the Democratic National Committee on Monday defended the decision to strip Florida of its 210 national convention delegates for moving up its Democratic presidential primary without the party's permission.

Meanwhile, Florida Democrats abandoned plans to redo the presidential primary.

Appearing before a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, DNC general counsel Joe Sandler denied Tampa political consultant Victor DiMaio's contention in a lawsuit that his constitutional rights were violated when the committee stripped Florida of its delegates.

DiMaio sued the DNC in August after the party punished Florida for moving its 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 29, six days earlier than party rules allowed. DiMaio said the action was unfair because Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature picked the Jan. 29 date over state Democrats' objections.

The dispute between the state and national parties has become even more critical because Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tight battle for the nomination.

Sandler told reporters after the one-hour hearing that it is well-established that the party can make its own rules.

"The strongest argument [we made] is the Supreme Court has long ruled that national political parties have a constitutional right to decide their method of choosing delegates," he said.

It could be a month or more before a ruling is handed down.

While the case was being argued, Florida Democratic officials abandoned an attempt to resolve the issue by holding a revote, deciding that a mail-in vote — the most affordable option — was too risky. State party Chairwoman Karen Thurman wrote that she now hopes the DNC rules committee will reconsider its decision.

"We researched every potential alternative process — from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections — but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida," Thurman wrote.

In Monday's hearing, Judge Roger Vinson pointed out that the Supreme Court has held that primary elections are actions of the state — which would bolster DiMaio's case.

Those cases, Sandler countered, dealt with situations in which the winner of a primary election went straight on to a state's ballot. That's not the case in the presidential primary. The Democratic nominee will be chosen at the national convention in August.

In his rebuttal, DiMaio's attorney, Michael Steinberg of Tampa, said the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution requires all groups to be treated equally and that had the DNC simply said every state must wait until after Feb. 5, no lawsuit would have resulted.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.