Constitutionality of Senate Joint Resolution 2G, Special Apportionment Session 1992, In re, 79674
| Decision Date | 25 June 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 79674,79674 |
| Citation | 601 So.2d 543 |
| Parties | In re CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 2G, SPECIAL APPORTIONMENT SESSION 1992. 601 So.2d 543, 17 Fla. L. Week. S373 |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Richard E. Doran, Asst. Deputy Atty. Gen., Gerald B. Curington, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and George L. Waas, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Legal Affairs, Tallahassee, for Atty. Gen.
Stephen N. Zack, Norman C. Powell and Scott L. Warfman of Zack, Hanzman, Ponce & Tucker, Miami, for Florida Senate.
Kevin X. Crowley and James A. Peters of Cobb, Cole & Bell, Tallahassee, for Florida House of Representatives.
Mark S. Levine, Tallahassee, for Simon Ferro, State Chairman, Florida Democratic Party.
George N. Meros, Jr. of Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, Tallahassee, and E. Thom Rumberger and Daniel J. Gerber of Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, Orlando, for interested parties, Miguel DeGrandy, Andy Ireland, Van B. Poole, Republican Party of Florida, Luis Rojas, Javier Souto, Alberto Cardenas, Luis Morse, Karen E. Butler, Jean Van Meter, Robert Woody, Mario Diaz-Balart, Casimer Smericki, Terry Ketchel, Rodolfo Garcia, Jr., Roberto Casas, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Justo Luis Pozo, Rey Velazquez, Alberto Gutman, Sgt. Augusta Carter, Ana M. Pinnellas and Carlos Valdes.
Larry K. White, Tallahassee and Brenda Wright of Lawyers' Committee for Civ. Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C., for interested parties, Gwen Humphrey, Vivian Kelly, Gerald Adams, Wilmateen W. Chandler, Dr. Percy L. Goodman, Jesse L. Nipper, Moease Smith, and Carolyn L. Williams.
Parker D. Thomson and Carol A. Licko of Thomson, Muraro & Razook, P.A., Miami, for Common Cause.
Charles G. Burr of Charles G. Burr, P.A., Tampa, Harry L. Lamb of Perry & Lamb, P.A., Orlando, and Dennis Courtland Hayes and Willie Abrams, NAACP Sp. Contribution Fund, Baltimore, Md., for Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches.
Henry C. Hunter and Charles E. Vanture, Tallahassee, and Rodney G. Gregory of the Law Offices of Rodney G. Gregory, Jacksonville, for interested parties, Darryl Reaves, Corrine Brown and James Hargarett.
Senator Pat Thomas, pro se.
Martha W. Barnett, David E. Cardwell, Scott D. Makar and Ana Cristina Martinez of Holland & Knight, Tallahassee, for Chesterfield Smith.
Charlene Miller Carres, Tallahassee, President of Florida Women's Political Caucus, Bay Area Women's Consortium, and Florida Nat. Organization for Women.
Senator S. Curtis Kiser, pro se.
On May 13, 1992, this Court approved Senate Joint Resolution 2G apportioning the Legislature of the State of Florida. In re Constitutionality of Senate Joint Resolution 2G, 597 So.2d 276 (Fla.1992). On June 16, 1992, the United States Department of Justice, pursuant to its authority under section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, 1 objected to the Senate apportionment plan with regard to the Hillsborough County area. Because Hillsborough County is subject to the preclearance requirements of section 5, the effect of this objection was to make the Senate apportionment plan legally unenforceable in that county. As a consequence, this Court entered an order encouraging the Legislature to adopt a plan that would meet the objection of the Justice Department. However, the Court was advised that the Governor did not intend to convene the Legislature in an extraordinary apportionment session and the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives did not intend to convene their respective houses in an extraordinary apportionment session. Because it appeared that a legislative impasse had occurred, this Court determined to modify the Senate redistricting plan so as to resolve the objection of the Justice Department.
We acknowledge that Miguel DeGrandy, et al., have questioned this Court's jurisdiction to proceed and have asserted that jurisdiction lies in the federal district court. However, the reapportionment of state legislative bodies is not a power delegated by the Constitution of the United States to the federal government. Under the provisions of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, this is a power reserved to states. Of course, this Court is obligated to apply any applicable federal constitutional provisions and any federal statutes implementing these provisions.
The Florida Constitution places upon this Court the responsibility to review state legislative reapportionment. Art. III, Sec. 16, Fla. Const. Pursuant to that authority, we approved the original legislative reapportionment and retained jurisdiction to entertain subsequent objections thereto. Consistent with the provisions of article III, section 16 of the Florida Constitution, we believe that it is our obligation to redraw the plan to satisfy the objection of the Justice Department now that the Legislature has declared that it is not going to do so.
A substantial number of minority persons live in the Hillsborough County area. However, the original Senate apportionment plan contained no districts in the Hillsborough County area in which the total of black and Hispanic persons constituted more than 40.1% of the voting-age population. In order to create an appreciably stronger minority district, it was evident that at the very least it would be necessary to combine minority populations in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. The Legislature had concluded that it was inappropriate to do this because these areas are separated by Tampa Bay and because they lack economic ties and political cohesiveness. However, the Justice Department rejected these and other legislative justifications and determined that the Senate plan with respect to the Hillsborough County area violated the Voting Rights Act. Specifically, the Justice Department pointed out that "there are no districts in which minority persons constitute a majority of the voting age population."
In order to address this problem, we permitted all interested parties to file proposed corrections to modify the Senate redistricting plan so as to resolve the objection of the Justice Department. Six corrective plans were submitted. Four of the plans created strengthened minority districts which were somewhat similar in that they combined much of the minority population of Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Manatee Counties. The voting-age populations of the strengthened minority district in these plans were as follows:
PLAN WHITE BLACK OTHER HISPANIC
Senator Thomas 60.4% 35.5% 4.1% 17.0%
Senator Curt Kiser 60.2% 36.7% 3.1% 11.8%
NAACP 59.7% 36.3% 4.0% 17.2%
Representative Peter Wallace 60.8% 35.1% 4.1% 17.8%
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However, presumably because of their dissimilar political objectives, some of these plans differed in the manner in which they redrew the districts which adjoined the strengthened minority district. 2
The fifth plan, submitted by the Florida Women's Political Caucus, et al., contained a strengthened minority district with a black voting-age population of 25.8% and a Hispanic voting-age population of 18.1%. The avowed purpose of this plan was to ensure that the redrawing of district lines would not result in a defeat of incumbent women senators.
The sixth plan was submitted by Gwen Humphrey, et al., and supported by Representative Darryl Reaves, et al. The strengthened minority district in this plan encompassed not only Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Manatee Counties, but also extended into Polk County. The voting-age population statistics for this district are as follows: white 51.2%; black 45.8%; other 3.0%; and hispanic 9.4%.
None of the plans created a district with a black majority voting-age population or a Hispanic majority voting-age population, although all of the plans except that submitted by the Florida Women's Political Caucus contained a district with a combined minority majority voting-age population. While it might be possible to create a district containing a black majority voting-age population, to do so would require extending the minority district even further into other counties. We do not believe that the Voting Rights Act requires such an extreme measure. On the other hand, we are convinced that the Justice Department will not approve a plan for the Hillsborough County area which does not contain a district in which black voters have a reasonable opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. It is for this reason that we have selected the Humphrey-Reaves plan as best suited to accomplish this result.
Because of the ripple effect, the adoption of the corrected plan changes the boundaries of Senate districts 10, 13, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 26. 3 Thus, the boundaries of districts have been altered in portions of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Highlands, Hardee, and DeSoto Counties.
We recognize that the configuration of this plan is more contorted than the others because it reaches further. 4 However, none of the plans can be considered compact because in creating a strengthened minority district it is necessary to extend fingers in several directions in order to include pockets of minority voters. The dissenters suggest that Polk County black voters have little community of interest with those in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties other than their race. That may be so, but under the law community of interest must give way to racial and ethnic fairness.
Though the NAACP plan as well as others also created a district in which the minorities as a whole amounted to more than 50% of the voting-age population, this would not necessarily mean that a minority candidate would have a reasonable chance of being elected from such district. While statistics show that in the Hillsborough County area most blacks and Hispanics vote for Democratic candidates, there is no indication that blacks and Hispanics vote for candidates of the opposite race when they are pitted...
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