April 27, 2012
Following a re-write of Florida’s Senate maps during an extraordinary 2012 Special Session, the Florida Supreme Court finally validated the redrawn plans late Friday morning.
The Court’s decision has noted that the plan’s opponents, who include the Florida Democratic Party and other voting rights groups, “have failed to present new facts demonstrating the Legislature redrew the plan with an improper intent."
Also of note, Justices James E.C. Perry and Peggy A. Quince objected in a separate dissent to the redrawn Senate District 8. Justice Perry states, “I concur in the majority except as to its rejection of the challenge to District 8. I would find that Redrawn District 8 is constitutionally invalid because it is non-compact, does not follow consistent geographical or political boundaries, and splits a historically black Democratic community in Daytona Beach when it was feasible for it to be kept whole.”
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