Florida has a pretty liberal state constitution, and it doesn't mean a motherfucking thing
This is my follow up to a previous similar post. I find myself in, sometimes, a very depressing mood when I think about what my home state of Florida has become.
The country has to deal with one Donald Trump that, on a scale of 1 to 10, heightens everything to an 11. Imagine having to deal with a Trump and a Ron DeSantis, who wants to be mini-Trump so bad. The only other Republican that I think is a match for the amount of crazy seen in a southern-state governor is Greg Abbott.
However, the difference, in theory, is that Florida is supposed to have this document called a state constitution that citizens can directly make changes to. We've voted for some pretty progressive things down here.
In a recent decision, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a gerrymandered map that absorbed a majority-minority district (and also majority Democratic) into three districts that all happened to now be majority Republican districts. The State of Florida was sued, with the trial court initially declaring the map unconstitutional but the state won the appeals.
In 2010, the voters of Florida approved as constitutional amendments the Fair Districts Amendments. They are supposed to give similar protection as the Voting Rights Act does in federal law, but the amendments also make partisan gerrymandering unconstitutional under the state constitution. It gives recourse on the state level in court against map-drawers that cheat for Republicans. Here are the ballot summaries for both amendments, below:
Legislative districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.
Congressional districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries.
I believe Ohio has Fair Districts Amendments as well. Pretty liberal shit, right?
Here's the problem with that, someone has to enforce it. Someone has the draw the maps in accordance with these amendments. Someone has to sign them into law, and ensure that elections are administered on these maps. Someone has to hear the cases in court if the biased mapdrawers cheat, and you want to sue for violating the state constitution. All these people couldn't give any LESS OF A FUCK about the Fair Districts Amendments. It's inconvenient for them, so they ignore it and press on. These are the people we are supposed to trust to enforce these amendments in good faith, but (1) the Florida legislature ignored these amendments by passing the unconstitutional map; (2) the governor of Florida ignored them by signing the maps into law, and; (3) the Florida Supreme Court just gutted these amendments. For the final nail in the coffin, the Florida Supreme Court says that enforcing parts of the Fair Districts Amendment in the state constitution violates the Equal Protection Clause of the federal constitution.
As Democratic voters in Florida, our only recourse at this time are citizen-led ballot initiatives. That's it! That's the only way we get policy that we want because we have become outnumbered after taking in a few million of America's biggest crybabies. Many times, we've been successful.
Despite all of the progressive liberal "lefty" things we vote for in the Florida constitution, they just proceed to gut it at the earliest opportunity, and the Florida Supreme Court rubber stamps them while wrapping it in legalese. No matter how many of these progressive amendments we vote on and approve, they run up against the brick wall of the fuckers that are charged with enforcing them. Then, they just become words on a page with no power behind them.
I'm not saying that it isn't worth the fight, but sometimes it feels like "why do we even bother?"
Unfortunately, this is just another episode of Florida being the poster child for the saying "constitutions don't enforce themselves."