State v. Fla. State Conf. of NAACP Branches, 43 So. 3d 662 (Fla. 2010). After
these efforts to defeat the FairDistricts Amendments at the ballot box failed, the
House joined in unsuccessful federal litigation to invalidate Amendment 6 (governing congressional redistricting), Brown v. Sec’y of State of Fla., 668 F.3d 1271
(11th Cir. 2012), and the Legislature unsuccessfully tried to convince the U.S. Department of Justice to interpret the amendments so as to restore the Legislature’s
prior discretion (Ex. CP-46.)
To justify his campaign against the FairDistricts Amendments, former
Speaker of the House Dean Cannon claimed that it was a “bad idea” to take discretion away from the “political branch” in redistricting. (T13:1621-22.) Rejecting the
intent and language of the FairDistricts Amendments, Cannon claimed that voters
should not “take the politics out of politics.” (T13:1621-22.)
The Appearance of an Open and Transparent Public Process
After the FairDistricts Amendments became law, the Legislature claimed its
opposition was a thing of the past. (T4:398-99.) Cannon pledged that, in enacting
Florida’s new maps after the 2010 census, the Legislature would conduct “the most
open, transparent and publicly participatory reapportionment process in Florida’s
history.” (Ex. CP-619 at 8.) The Legislature then purported to undertake what
would normally be hallmarks of transparent decision-making. It held 26 public
hearings across the state, solicited and received comments from members of the
7
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