Saint Petersblog: Ruling suggests broad redistricting case

[Patricia M. McBride]

Redistricting case before the supreme court.  No maps approved as yet, and the liberal groups are up in arms over the gerry mandered districts (I guess they want them neatly divided into districts.............which our state legislators have said can be done once federal law in applied and the gerry mandered districts are outlined).  So, now, these groups got these horrid fair district laws on the ballot and worked to get them approved by Florida residents who voted for them mostly to get rid of gerrymandered districts................and we are stuck with them anyway!

 

Wednesday 2/22/2012

With about a week to go until oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court over the state’s plan for legislative redistricting, justices are already fighting about how far the court can go in reviewing the new maps, reports Brandon Larrabee of the News Service of Florida.

In what could amount to a victory for opponents of the proposal for carving up House and Senate districts (SJR 1176), the court issued an order Tuesday calling for the Florida Democratic Party and a coalition of voting-rights organizations to hand over information they had on lawmakers’ residences.

The court said it would then ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Legislature to review the addresses and make sure they’re correct.

Democrats and the voting-rights groups — including the League of Women Voters, the National Council of La Raza and Common Cause Florida — contend that the lawmakers violated the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts provisions in the constitution by protecting incumbents.

“In order for the Court to properly carry out its duties in evaluating this constitutional standard, it is necessary that the Court be provided with information concerning the residences of legislators,” the majority said in a 4-3 ruling.

Read  more here:  http://saintpetersblog.com/2012/02/ruling-suggests-broad-redistrict...