Editorial: One more time?

Editorial Board
The Gainesville Sun
Dec 11, 2009

There is nothing state lawmakers guard more jealously than their power to rig legislative and congressional districts to serve their own interests and their party's desire for control. The Legislature has already gone once to the Florida Supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to block two initiatives intended to take the politics out of redistricting from getting on the 2010 ballot. Now legislative leaders are considering another appeal, this time on the premise that the two FairDistrictsFlorida.org-sponsored amendments might somehow be construed to make it harder for minorities to get elected.

Both those proposed state constitutional amendments (one setting standards for drawing congressional districts and one for legislative districts) contain the explicit proviso that districts cannot "be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice."

Seems clear enough.

If there is a second appeal, the state high court should quickly shoot it down. What lawmakers really want is to keep the raw power to shape districts as they and their parties see fit.

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