The Senate in a separate filing with the high court argues that Lewis already can do what the House is asking. He said he was “happy to do whatever I’m told”.
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The hearing to redistrict Florida will happen in September and hopefully Lewis can bring about some order to Florida’s dysfunctional legislature. He told Lewis that because of the Legislature’s stalemate, “the Supreme Court may elect to deal with it themselves”. But the House and Senate sharply differed on changes in the central Florida and Tampa Bay region.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis was supposed to review the map passed by legislators.
This after a lawsuit that led to a ruling last month striking down eight of the state’s congressional districts. The Florida GOP doesn’t know how to fairly redraw the lines without giving up their district advantage, reported Politicus USA. While it gives me great pause to ask the court to decide this matter, I can assure you that the difference of opinion between the two chambers is both significant and legitimate, Crisafulli wrote in a memo to House members.
But while the House’s lawyer’s suggested the court may just have to draw a new map, the Senate’s attorneys wanted lawmakers to give it another go.
After the hearing, Sen.
A special session aimed at redrawing the congressional lines collapsed Friday after the House and Senate failed to agree on whether to amend a base map, drawn by legislative aides to satisfy a Supreme Court opinion that the current districts violated the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts standards approved by voters in 2010. Until now, the House and Senate have generally presented a united front in the face of the challenge to the districts. “We would prefer to pass a map with the Florida Senate, but they have been unyielding on their position”.
“We’re the Legislature. It’s not always smooth, it’s not always easy and this year is a good example of that”, he said.
For League of Women Voters attorney David King, this just reiterates the thing he’s been saying all along: the courts need to draw the map.
“To me, it’s squandering an opportunity if we don’t at least give it another try”, he said.
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Specifically, the plaintiffs want to see a change to the legislature’s proposal to shift 35,000 black voters from Congressional District 26 held by U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo into Congressional District 27, held by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, King said.
