In a 5-2 opinion, the Florida Supreme Court Wednesday approved a map for the 27 congressional districts submitted not by the Florida Legislature, but by the Florida League of Women Voters and other members of a liberal coalition and approved by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis in October.
See the high court's decison here.
Justice Barbara Pariente who wrote the majority opinion says the decision gives some closure to the nearly four-year legal battle dominated by operatives of both political parties in Florida. But it likely isn't over: U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, said immediately after the ruling she will challenge the configuration of her North Florida district in federal court.
The unusual route to approval was the result of the House and Senate's failure to agree on a congressional plan during an August special session. The Supreme Court had invalidated the original congressional map in July, ruling the role of Republican operatives had unconstitutionally tainted the process. That created the need for a special session.
The resulting map approved Wednesday is basically the work of Democratic operatives.
Justice Ricky Polston, one of the dissenters, criticized the decision because Judge Lewis relied on a map drawn by a redistricting consultant with ties to Democrats and was designed to intentionally pack Republicans into districts. That decision, said Polston, violates the standards voters adopted to rid the process of partisan influence.
Said Polston in his dissent, "Given that this is now a judicial process to adopt a court redistricting plan, we should at the very least ensure that the proposal we adopt passes constitutional muster ... it “did not undergo the same scrutiny for partisan bias that the majority of the plans that were previously considered had undergone. And each party submitting a proposal to the court for consideration should be the party that bears the burden to establish that its proposal is constitutional."
After the ruling, Pamela Goodman, president of the League of Women Voters, said, "The democratic process prevailed today in a landmark victory for Florida citizens. In accepting the congressional map submitted by the plaintiffs, League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause of Florida, the mandates for FAIR Districts -- enshrined in our Constitution by 3.1 million voters -- are upheld."
The Tampa Bay Times reported that on Tuesday Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds "warned the challengers in the Senate redistricting case that they will have to show that the maps they have submitted were not tainted by improper partisan intent, as they are accusing the Senate leadership of doing. ...
"You should be held to virtually the same standard out of fairness," Reynolds told the lawyers for the League of Women Voters and Common Cause during a 30-minute scheduling hearing. The five-day trial on Senate redistricting begins Dec. 14.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
