A federal appeals court has upheld a Florida constitutional amendment imposing new rules on how congressional districts are redrawn. Florida Public Radio’s Trimmel Gomes reports the panel of judges unanimously rejected the assertion that the state’s anti-gerrymandering reforms were unconstitutional.
In a blow to two incumbent congressmen and the Florida House, the appeals court rebuffed claims by U.S. Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami and Corinne Brown of Jacksonville that the power to change congressional redistricting rules resides solely with the Legislature and not the voters through referendum.
Fair Districts Now General Counsel Dan Gelber says Florida’s redistricting criteria should be a model for other states because it stops incumbents from helping themselves.
“And had the court ruled differently it might well have caused dozens of other states to be in peril."
Florida voters in 2010 approved the anti-gerrymandering amendments known as Fair Districts with more than 60 percent of the vote. Among other things, it requires that boundaries be drawn so that no political party or incumbent is favored and so that they are compact rather than sprawling.