In re Senate Joint Resolution of Legislative Apportionment 2-B

Summary

The Florida Supreme Court reviews the validity of Senate Joint Resolution 2-B, the Legislature’s revised plan for apportioning Florida Senate districts after the Court invalidated portions of the original plan. The Court addresses challenges involving partisan and incumbent-favoring intent, minority voting protections, district-specific requirements, and the scope of review in the second phase of the apportionment process. It ultimately declares the revised Senate apportionment plan constitutionally valid.

Holdings

1. The revised Senate apportionment plan contained in Senate Joint Resolution 2-B is constitutionally valid under the Florida Constitution.
2. Opponents of a legislative apportionment plan bear the burden of establishing a constitutional violation, and facial invalidity need not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
3. Although res judicata does not technically apply to the second-phase apportionment proceeding, it is fundamentally unfair to entertain challenges that could have been raised earlier or that were previously rejected when the Legislature no longer has an opportunity to correct the alleged defects.
4. The challengers failed to establish that Redrawn District 8 was facially invalid based on noncompactness, county or city splits, or an intent to favor a political party.
5. The challengers failed to establish that the redrawn Orlando-area districts were constitutionally invalid.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the revised Senate apportionment plan complied with the Florida Constitution's prohibitions on intent to favor or disfavor a political party or incumbent.
2. Whether the record demonstrated that the revised plan diminished the ability of racial or language minorities to elect representatives of their choice.
3. Whether challenges to districts that were unchanged, minimally changed, previously rejected, or previously unchallenged could properly be considered in the second-phase review.
4. Whether the challenged individual districts violated Florida's constitutional requirements concerning compactness, use of political and geographical boundaries, minority voting protections, and partisan or incumbent favoritism.
5. Whether Senate Joint Resolution 2-B was constitutionally valid as a whole.

Disposition

approved