Florida's Constitution Bans The Sort Of Map-Rigging Republicans Want To Do There
WASHINGTON – Bloodied by the mid-decade redistricting brawl started by President Donald Trump, Republicans are now urging their Florida colleagues to jump into the fray this week, even though their every public utterance makes a legal challenge to a new map there more likely to succeed.
Unlike most states, Florida’s constitution explicitly prohibits exactly the sort of partisan gerrymandering Trump demanded of GOP states last year as a way to maintain control of the House in the coming midterm elections.
“This should not be happening at all. It is fully illegal,” said Amy Keith, state director of Common Cause Florida, one of the groups that got the “Fair Districts Amendments” added to the state constitution 16 years ago. “We are wasting time, money and effort on something that’s illegal that people don’t want.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, clearly aware of the legal problems of drawing a map to benefit Republicans, has instead been offering various other rationales, including the mystifying claim that a new map was now necessary because Florida had been undercounted in the 2020 Census.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-redistrict-florida_n_69e9317ae4b0cc34aae4245b