“Court fulfills voters’ will on reform: Where We Stand”

Orlando Sentinel editorial:

Floridians have waited a long time — much too long — to see their will to reform the redistricting process fulfilled.

On Wednesday, more than five years after 63 percent of state voters approved the Fair Districts amendments to the Florida Constitution, a 5-2 majority of the state Supreme Court upheld a recommendation from Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis for new boundaries for the state’s 27 congressional districts.

The new map, submitted by a coalition that included the groups behind the original Fair Districts campaign, would replace one from legislators that flouted the ban on gerrymandering — rigging districts to favor incumbents or parties — that voters adopted in 2010.

Legislative leaders have squandered $11 million in public money defending their unconstitutional maps for Congress and the state Senate. They’ve failed in multiple sessions to produce new maps that would comply with the Fair Districts amendments.

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