[EL] Florida, redistricting, and state constitutions

[Michael McDonald]

You wouldn’t be too surprised if you had also read this manuscript by Micah Altman, Brian Amos, Dan Smith and myself, “Revealing Preferences: Why Gerrymanders are Hard to Prove, and What to Do about It”
 
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2583528
 
In it, we explain how courts use plan comparison to determine when gerrymanders occur. Analyzing the Florida district court decision, we show how the Florida Supreme Court could use the plan comparison method to determine that a violation of the first tier prohibition on partisan intent occurred. And they did just that in their ruling.
 
============
Dr. Michael P. McDonald
Associate Professor
University of Florida
Department of Political Science
223 Anderson Hall
P.O. Box 117325
Gainesville, FL 32611
 
phone:   352-273-2371 (office)
e-mail:  dr.michael.p.mcdonald at gmail.com                
web:      <http://www.electproject.org/> www.ElectProject.org 
twitter: @ElectProject
 
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Schultz, David A.
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2015 5:25 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] Florida, redistricting, and state constitutions
 
Dear All:
 
The Florida decision today striking down part of the state's  redistricting 

 plan is not an entire surprise, at least for those of us who teach state constitutional law.
 
About a decade ago I did a couple of pieces on  state courts and partisan gerrymandering.  The cites are below.  Too often in general we think all the action is in the federal courts but for those of us who teach state con law we know that state courts are increasingly using their own constitutions to address issues that the federal courts do not.  Just last week or so the Oklahoma Supreme Court issued a pairs of decisions to prove that.  My point is that there is a vastly neglected field of election law that fails to look at state constitutional arguments when it comes to issues such as voting rights, gerrymandering, etc.  The Florida case is a message for us not to neglect these cases.  
 
The Party’s Over:  Partisan  Gerrymandering and the First Amendment, 36 Capital Law Review 1 (2007).
 
Redistricting and the New Judicial Federalism: Reapportionment Litigation Under State Constitutions, 37 Rutgers L. J. 1087 (2006).
-- 
David Schultz, Professor
Editor, Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE)
Hamline University
Department of Political Science
1536 Hewitt Ave
MS B 1805
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
651.523.2858 (voice)
651.523.3170 (fax)
http://davidschultz.efoliomn.com/
http://works.bepress.com/david_schultz/
http://schultzstake.blogspot.com/
Twitter:  @ProfDSchultz
My latest book:  Election Law and Democratic Theory, Ashgate Publishing
http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754675433
FacultyRow SuperProfessor, 2012, 2013, 2014
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