Florida’s Congressional Districts Rejected as Gerrymandered

In the 5-2 ruling, with Justices Charles Canady and Ricky Polston dissenting, the court provided unprecedented and specific direction to the Legislature, such as redrawing the snake-shaped district of Congressional District 5, now held by Congresswoman Corrine Brown, in an east-west direction. Lewis accepted the changes, but the Florida League of Women Voters challenged that action. In siding with a coalition of Democrat-backed voter groups, the court majority concluded that the boundaries drawn by lawmakers violated the anti-gerrymandering provisions of the state Constitution.

The Florida decision has little bearing on the redistricting process as it stands right now in North Carolina, but it does offer lawmakers and voters lessons on the transparency that should underlie the process.

Lawmakers had claimed to have no part in the gerrymandered maps, which were reconfigured in 2011 to benefit Republicans.

Florida’s fifth Congressional district, seen in dark purple, meanders from Jacksonville to Orlando.

As we have recognized, the 2012 redistricting process improved upon past efforts.

A new Democratic star, U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham of Tallahassee, might be in trouble with a redrawn district, potentially forcing her into the U.S. Senate race. She said it may violate the 1964 Voting Rights Act, which was created to protect minority voters.

“To do so is to offer a presumption of constitutionality to decisions that have been found to have been influenced by unconstitutional considerations”, Pariente said. Corrine Brown (5th), Kathy Castor (14th), Ted Deutch (21st), Lois Frankel (22nd) and Republican Reps.

Those districts include seats held by Democratic Reps. David Jolly, Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Curbelo, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The state Supreme Court ruling ordered the Leon court to oversee more changes to the congressional districts within 100 days, in order to make time for the coming election season.

But justices R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince wrote pointed dissents, with Lewis saying the proposal would have authorized higher Bar dues — but would not have mandated them.

The majority sharply notes the harsh words of the dissenters, which included a “barrage of epithets” including such terms as “fallacious, fabricated, extreme distortion, revolutionary deformation, teeming with judicial overreaching, creatively cobbled, aggressive invasion, aberrant decision and unprecedented incursions”.

“I hope the third time is the charm”, Pafford said in a statement.

Maybe it’s good that all the justices are taking some time off now.

In a June opinion, the high court gave its approval to redistricting commissions already operating in a handful of states, effectively stripping legislatures there of their power to draw legislative and Congressional district boundaries once every 10 years.