Millions voted for Florida’s Fair Districts. Lawmakers may wipe it out in one session | Editorial

Florida voters said clearly in 2010 that they wanted to put an end to political and anti-minority gerrymandering. More than 3.1 million Floridians — 63% — cast votes in favor of the Fair Districts amendments to the state’s Constitution.

Now, in 2022, Florida legislators are about to turn their backs on those voters by refusing to abide by the Fair Districts amendments during the congressional redistricting process. Instead of following the law approved by voters, they are letting Gov. Ron DeSantis draw the new district lines — an abdication of their legal responsibility — and run right over them in his pursuit of one-man rule in Florida.

Some may shrug off this debacle of a special session in Tallahassee and say it doesn’t matter. We’re all worn down by the drip-drip-drip of Florida’s government eroding before our eyes. But this matters. It’s about fair representation and Black and brown people’s ability to elect lawmakers who they think will truly represent them. It’s about legislators — who are elected to represent us, not the governor — refusing to honor the law, refusing to honor the voters who put them there.

And this time, the courts may not save us.

Fair Districts spurned

The Fair Districts amendments — one covers congressional representation, the other covers legislative representation — were specifically created as checks on legislative power, to make sure that lawmakers couldn’t use the once-a-decade redistricting process for their own gain. The responsibility for drawing new district lines for Congress and the Legislature is supposed to be one that Florida legislators take seriously because it affects who can get elected to office for the next 10 years, minority representation, in particular, and how federal funds are allocated.

But last time around, they let corruption in the door by allowing political operatives to conduct an illegal “shadow process” of map drawing behind the scenes, even as lawmakers publicly claimed their actions were honorable and transparent. It took years to sort out in the courts. In the end, Florida’s courts ruled that legislators violated the Fair Districts amendments.

This time the hypocrisy is even worse. For months, Florida legislators insisted they were working hard to come up with redistricting maps that would abide by the Fair Districts amendments and restore public trust. Back in September, when lawmakers were just beginning the process, Rep. Ray Rodrigues, an Estero Republican and chair of the Senate Reapportionment Committee, even said this: “I intend for this committee to conduct the process in a manner that is consistent with case law developed during the last decade, is beyond reproach and free from any kind of unconstitutional intent.’’

It seemed to work — for a while. Legislators carved out legislative districts with relatively little acrimony and no court challenges. But the governor has no say over those.

Then came the carving up of congressional districts, and that’s where DeSantis big-footed them in a manner never before displayed by any governor. He has veto power over that map, and he used it to force lawmakers to accept one that increases the number of Republican-majority districts from 16 to 20. (There are only 28, total.) That’s even more ridiculous when you know that there are 5.1 million registered Republicans in Florida, about 5 million Democrats and about 3.9 million no-party registrations, as of March 31. In other words, the electorate is far more evenly divided than his map, which is wildly unfair to voters.

And of course, his map would also reduce minority representation in North and Central Florida, prompting Black lawmakers including Sen. Shevrin Jones, a South Florida Democrat, to call the governor’s strategy “racist.” Less minority representation could be part of a slide back toward our Jim Crow past. The governor seems to have no problem with that.

For a moment, the Republican-controlled Legislature actually stood up to the governor, labeling his map a “novel legal argument.” Then, perhaps weak-kneed from that effort, they capitulated.

And now, despite the months of talk about following the law, the special session in Tallahassee this week has become merely a formality for the Legislature to give DeSantis the thumbs-up on his map.

Courts are a risk

A court challenge in this case seems very likely. And yet there may be hesitation, because it’s not without risks if it happens. DeSantis has openly said he would like to see the 12-year-old Fair Districts amendments thrown out in court as being incompatible with the Equal Protection Clause of 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which in essence says a state must govern impartially. DeSantis, a Harvard-trained lawyer, apparently wants to take his chances in court, with more conservative judges in place.

That will harm Florida, of course, and disenfranchise voters. But it will serve the governor and his political career very well indeed. A court case that attempts to dismantle the Fair Districts amendments will take months, or years. DeSantis’ own reelection will be well past, with his eye on Washington. Win or lose in the legal system, he gets to show Republicans that hardball politicians make things happen — even if that means drowning out the voices of some 3.1 million voters.

The Fair Districts amendments are an attempt to create a better Florida, one with fair representation, and to beat back the forces of political corruption that have hamstrung the redistricting process for too long.

Twelve years ago, more then 3 million voters put their faith in that vision. And now, with DeSantis at the helm and a complicit Legislature obediently following, the voice of the people is on the verge of being silenced — and by the very people they elected.

This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 4:55 PM.