This week the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion that puts big teeth into the FairDistricts Amendments. The Legislature had tried to shut the courthouse door to Floridians who want to prove that the 2012 Senate redistricting map was drawn with intent to favor incumbents and the controlling political party.
Yesterday’s decision rejected the Legislature’s efforts to close the process. The Court gave great deference to the will of the voters: that manipulation of district lines for political purposes should be stopped in Florida. The ruling establishes that the people have a right to learn the facts that will show whether the Legislature acted with partisan intent when it drew the 2012 maps.
The Legislature has a history of doing everything in its power to avoid the redistricting standards that we all worked so hard to pass.
They fought in court when we sought court approval of the language for the ballot. They lost.
They held scores of committee meetings to talk about how bad the new standards would be for Florida and tried to frighten minority voters and leaders into opposing the amendments. They did not succeed.
They tried to place a blatantly misleading “poison pill” amendment on the ballot. The Supreme Court removed it.
They spent millions to oppose the amendments at the polls. The Amendments passed overwhelmingly.
Within hours of our victory at the polls, they filed suit in federal court to have the amendments held unconstitutional. They lost again.
And now the FairDistricts Coalition is discovering evidence that when they drew the maps in 2012 the legislative map drawers intentionally favored certain incumbents and their political party. Those who drew the maps blatantly defied the constitutional restraints you worked so hard to place on them.
For the Herald story on this issue:
The Miami Herald
LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING
High court won’t stop redistrict challenge
The Florida Supreme Court refused to throw out a lawsuit that contends legislators ignored new standards while drawing up state Senate districts.
BY STEVE BOUSQUET HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Supreme Court handed a legal setback to the Legislature Thursday by giving a green light to a trial that challenges the redrawing of state Senate districts.
The challenge, if successful, could greatly shake up the next round of Senate elections in 2014.
Lawmakers tried to thwart the challenge from the League of Women voters and other groups, who say Senate Republicans redrew districts for partisan advantage in violation of voter-approved “fair districts” amendments to the Constitution.
Lawmakers argued that only the Supreme Court had the power to review legislative redistricting maps, in a narrow 30-day window last year.
But in a 5-2 ruling, the court said that state law and its own precedents mean the case must proceed in a circuit court in Tallahassee.
Writing for the majority, Justice Barbara Pariente said last year’s brief and compressed “facial” review of maps was not intended to be the last word on the issue as it had in previous redistricting challenges in 1972, 1982 and 1992.
“Our precedent remains clear that subsequent challenges based on factual evidence not considered or available in this court’s initial 30-day review may be brought and argued in a court of competent jurisdiction,” Pariente wrote. “These are the exact types of claims that must be subject to a fact-finder’s scrutiny.”
Chief Justice Ricky Polston and Justice Charles Canady dissented.
Senate President Don Gaetz, RNiceville, who chaired the Senate Reapportionment Committee that drew the maps, said he was disappointed in the ruling and stands by the maps, which he said are “compliant with Florida’s Constitution [and] will ultimately be affirmed.”
Praising the ruling, the League of Women Voters said: “When districts are manipulated, voters are disenfranchised.”
The ruling ensures that the costs to taxpayers to defend the 2012 redistricting maps will mount, as noted by Senate lawyer Raoul Cantero, a former Supreme Court justice, who predicted “perhaps endless rounds of litigation.”
The Supreme Court last year approved the redrawing of all 120 House districts, but found the new Senate map was “rife with indicators of improper intent” and violated standards that bar favoritism toward incumbents or parties, even in the way district numbers were assigned.
A redrawn Senate map won court approval, and senators were assigned district numbers in a random lottery-style drawing.
Democrats picked up two Senate seats in the 2012 elections and Republicans now hold 26 of 40 seats. But of 20 Senate seats up for grabs next year, 16 are held by Republicans and four by Democrats.
Yesterday’s decision rejected the Legislature’s efforts to close the process. The Court gave great deference to the will of the voters: that manipulation of district lines for political purposes should be stopped in Florida. The ruling establishes that the people have a right to learn the facts that will show whether the Legislature acted with partisan intent when it drew the 2012 maps.
The Legislature has a history of doing everything in its power to avoid the redistricting standards that we all worked so hard to pass.
They fought in court when we sought court approval of the language for the ballot. They lost.
They held scores of committee meetings to talk about how bad the new standards would be for Florida and tried to frighten minority voters and leaders into opposing the amendments. They did not succeed.
They tried to place a blatantly misleading “poison pill” amendment on the ballot. The Supreme Court removed it.
They spent millions to oppose the amendments at the polls. The Amendments passed overwhelmingly.
Within hours of our victory at the polls, they filed suit in federal court to have the amendments held unconstitutional. They lost again.
And now the FairDistricts Coalition is discovering evidence that when they drew the maps in 2012 the legislative map drawers intentionally favored certain incumbents and their political party. Those who drew the maps blatantly defied the constitutional restraints you worked so hard to place on them.
For the Herald story on this issue:
The Miami Herald
LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING
High court won’t stop redistrict challenge
The Florida Supreme Court refused to throw out a lawsuit that contends legislators ignored new standards while drawing up state Senate districts.
BY STEVE BOUSQUET HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Supreme Court handed a legal setback to the Legislature Thursday by giving a green light to a trial that challenges the redrawing of state Senate districts.
The challenge, if successful, could greatly shake up the next round of Senate elections in 2014.
Lawmakers tried to thwart the challenge from the League of Women voters and other groups, who say Senate Republicans redrew districts for partisan advantage in violation of voter-approved “fair districts” amendments to the Constitution.
Lawmakers argued that only the Supreme Court had the power to review legislative redistricting maps, in a narrow 30-day window last year.
But in a 5-2 ruling, the court said that state law and its own precedents mean the case must proceed in a circuit court in Tallahassee.
Writing for the majority, Justice Barbara Pariente said last year’s brief and compressed “facial” review of maps was not intended to be the last word on the issue as it had in previous redistricting challenges in 1972, 1982 and 1992.
“Our precedent remains clear that subsequent challenges based on factual evidence not considered or available in this court’s initial 30-day review may be brought and argued in a court of competent jurisdiction,” Pariente wrote. “These are the exact types of claims that must be subject to a fact-finder’s scrutiny.”
Chief Justice Ricky Polston and Justice Charles Canady dissented.
Senate President Don Gaetz, RNiceville, who chaired the Senate Reapportionment Committee that drew the maps, said he was disappointed in the ruling and stands by the maps, which he said are “compliant with Florida’s Constitution [and] will ultimately be affirmed.”
Praising the ruling, the League of Women Voters said: “When districts are manipulated, voters are disenfranchised.”
The ruling ensures that the costs to taxpayers to defend the 2012 redistricting maps will mount, as noted by Senate lawyer Raoul Cantero, a former Supreme Court justice, who predicted “perhaps endless rounds of litigation.”
The Supreme Court last year approved the redrawing of all 120 House districts, but found the new Senate map was “rife with indicators of improper intent” and violated standards that bar favoritism toward incumbents or parties, even in the way district numbers were assigned.
A redrawn Senate map won court approval, and senators were assigned district numbers in a random lottery-style drawing.
Democrats picked up two Senate seats in the 2012 elections and Republicans now hold 26 of 40 seats. But of 20 Senate seats up for grabs next year, 16 are held by Republicans and four by Democrats.
1 comment:
The irony is that the clowns doing the gerrymandering, which denies citizens democracy, are the first to claim 'liberty and freedom' are behind their crony capitalist give aways. E.g. 'we are not going to give solar incentives because we do not want to "pick winners"...while they pass Early Cost Recovery which is a give away to old technology of nuclear power that is cost ineffective.
The greatest threat to the well being of this state is the GOP and radical right.
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