Judge rules Florida Legislature broke laws on maps
(AP/The State) – TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature illegally drew the state’s congressional districts to primarily benefit the Republican Party, a judge has ruled, and has ordered them redrawn.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said in a 41-page ruling Thursday that legislators relied on GOP political operatives who worked in secret to craft the final political maps adopted in 2012. In doing so Lewis rejected arguments from top legislative leaders that they had done nothing wrong during the process.
The landmark decision comes in the first serious test of the “Fair Districts” amendments adopted by the state’s voters in 2010. Those standards said legislators could no longer draw up districts to favor incumbents or a political party, a practice known as “gerrymandering.”
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The judge did not agree that all the districts cited by the groups were unconstitutional. But he found that two districts violated the new standards: a sprawling district held by U.S. Rep. Corinne Brown that runs from Jacksonville to Orlando and a central Florida district held by U.S. Rep. Dan Webster. Brown is a Democrat, while Webster is a Republican.Lewis said the presence of two invalid districts rendered the entire congressional map invalid although he said that doesn’t mean that every district must be redrawn.
Part of the evidence used by Lewis to make his decision was never presented publicly. It was kept secret because of legal challenges brought by one of the consultants involved. But Lewis said that evidence convinced him that the political operatives engaged in a “conspiracy to influence and manipulate the Legislature into a violation of its constitutional duty.”
“They made a mockery of the Legislature’s proclaimed transparent and open process of redistricting by doing all of this in the shadow of the process,” Lewis stated in his ruling.
Florida lawmakers on trial for playing politics with congressional districts
(Jacksonville News) May 19, 2014 – Evidence obtained from Reichelderfer’s computer show that he got copies of proposed maps sometimes days and weeks before they were released to the public. Reichelderfer exchanged information about these proposed maps with other Republican consultants and discussed one of the maps with U.S. Rep. Dan Webster.
Reichelderfer got some of the maps from a top aide to Cannon, but repeatedly insisted he did not tell Cannon or legislative staff whether changes to the districts would help or hurt Republicans.