Gov. Charlie Crist is asking the courts to kill a lawsuit challenging proposed constitutional amendments that would change the way voting districts in Florida are drawn.
The governor’s office waded into the legal fray this week, filing a “friend of the court” brief against a lawsuit filed by U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart and the Florida Legislature.
The lawmakers want two proposed amendments – Amendment 5 and Amendment 6 – booted from the November 2010 ballot. The two proposed constitutional amendments, sponsored by FairDistricts.org, would change the way legislative and congressional redistricting is done in Florida by requiring that new voting districts be compact, contiguous and respect city and country boundaries when possible – but not favor incumbents or political parties.
The initial lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court in May by Brown and Diaz-Balart, who were later joined by the Legislature, argues that the measures mislead voters and could hurt minority representation. FairDistricts leaders have argued that the current system is patently unfair, creating districts that are drawn to lock down support for the people who draw the districts – lawmakers.
Lawyers for Crist said the legislative challenge could best be described as “an end-run around the Supreme Court’s limited, exclusive review of the people’s ability to amend their constitution through citizen initiative process.” The organizers of FairDistricts, Crist argued, met all the legal requirements to put a constitutional amendment to the voters and the ultimate deciders should be Floridians.
In order to put the amendment on the ballot, the organizers collected 676,811 voter signatures and had the ballot language approved for by the Florida Supreme Court for clarity and for meeting the requirement that it only be about one issue.
A third proposed constitutional amendment – Amendment 7 – put on the ballot by lawmakers, also deals with the legislative redistricting process, asking voters to put certain requirements for redrawing districts in the constitution, regardless of what is required by two other amendments.
In the final days of the 2010 legislative session, lawmakers crafted the proposal, which they said would clarify the other two amendments if they are approved. Backers of the first two amendments, however said it would be in direct conflict with their proposals.
The NAACP and Florida League of Women Voters also filed suit to knock Amendment 7 off the November ballot. That case is pending. Crist also filed a brief supporting that lawsuit.
By Kathleen Haughney
The News Service of Florida
