High court hears redistricting duel

Justices sharply question Republican supporters and Democratic foes of the state legislative map.

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 24, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- A partisan legal fight over the first Republican plan of Florida legislative districts unfolded Tuesday before the state Supreme Court, which has two weeks to endorse the map for the fall elections or reject it and demand changes.

In a courtroom filled with the politically powerful, both sides argued for two hours. The same justices who felt the eyes of the world in the weeks after the disputed 2000 presidential election sounded at times as if they were reluctant to wade into another political dispute.

"Don't we have to give deference to what the legislative decision has been, which is necessarily going to be a political decision?" Justice Harry Lee Anstead inquired at one point.

Striking a different tone, Anstead asked the plan's defenders why there has been an "extraordinary outpouring of objections from places where you normally wouldn't expect that."

The Legislature's legal experts said the plan should be approved and that critics such as Attorney General Bob Butterworth failed to prove it is biased against minority voters or violates the U.S. Constitution's principle of one person, one vote. Besides, the lawyers said, redistricting remains the Legislature's province.

"That is a quintessential legislative judgment. It's not a judgment for the court to make," said Senate counsel Barry Richard.

Opponents, most of them Democrats, urged the court not to "rubber-stamp" a plan rigged for GOP political gain.

"This plan is manipulated every way possible without any explanation of the overall game plan," Deputy Attorney General Paul Hancock told the court.

The justices must rule by May 8. A three-judge panel of federal judges also is scrutinizing a plan for 25 congressional districts.

With two of their members absent, justices fired one skeptical question after another at both sides.

Anstead was the most spirited questioner. He asked House lawyer Joseph Hatchett, a former state Supreme Court justice, about complaints by Collier County residents that they are now joined with suburban west Broward voters in House District 101, stretching from Marco Island to Pembroke Pines.

Hatchett denied that Republicans drew the lines to maximize their chances in future elections. He noted that the GOP gained control of the House by fielding candidates in the districts Democrats drew a decade ago.

Anstead questioned the logic of Senate District 27, which meanders from Fort Myers to West Palm Beach. The sprawling Democratic district is partly the result of a political deal to win Democratic votes for the map.

Senate lawyer Richard said it is "virtually impossible" to create 40 Senate districts with identical populations to conform to the one-person, one-vote requirements of the U.S. Constitution without splitting communities.

Dexter Douglass, representing Common Cause and the League of Women Voters, said the map was "gerrymandered beyond belief" and should be cast aside. Thomasina Williams, on behalf of black and Hispanic voters in Miami-Dade, argued that the map diluted those groups' voting power in several legislative districts.

Two justices on the seven-member court did not participate in Tuesday's proceedings. Barbara Pariente recused herself and was replaced by 1st District Court of Appeal Judge William Van Nortwick Jr. Peggy Quince was absent due to a stomach ailment.

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