## Facts

- In 2010, Florida voters approved the “Fair Districts” amendment to the Florida Constitution, adding new standards for state legislative apportionment in article III, sections 20–21.
- The amendment established a two-tier set of criteria: mandatory first-tier rules (including bans on intent to favor a party or incumbent, minority-vote protections, and contiguity) and second-tier rules (population equality, compactness, and use of existing political and geographic boundaries when feasible).
- After the 2010 Census, the Florida Legislature enacted Committee Substitute for Senate Joint Resolution 1176 (2012 Regular Session), creating 120 Florida House districts and 40 Florida Senate districts.
- Under article III, section 16(c) of the Florida Constitution, the Florida Attorney General filed a mandatory petition in the Florida Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment on the validity of the enacted apportionment plans.
- The Florida Supreme Court conducted its constitutionally required original review proceeding and permitted opponents and other interested parties to present arguments about whether the House and Senate plans complied with state and federal requirements.

## Issues

1. Whether the House apportionment plan in CS/SJR 1176 complied with the Florida Constitution, including the two-tier standards created by the Fair Districts amendment.
2. Whether the Senate apportionment plan in CS/SJR 1176 complied with the Florida Constitution, including the Fair Districts amendment’s first-tier and second-tier requirements.
3. How the Florida Supreme Court should apply and prioritize the amendment’s first-tier requirements versus its second-tier districting criteria in this mandatory declaratory-judgment review.

## Decision

- The Court declared the plan apportioning districts for the Florida House of Representatives constitutionally valid under the Florida Constitution.
- The Court declared the plan apportioning districts for the Florida Senate constitutionally invalid under the Florida Constitution.
- The Court held that the voter-adopted Fair Districts standards are express limits on the Legislature’s line-drawing and require the Court to apply those standards during its mandatory apportionment review.
- The Court concluded that, on the record in this proceeding, the House plan satisfied the applicable constitutional requirements.
- The Court concluded that the Senate plan failed to satisfy the Fair Districts standards, including deficiencies tied to compactness and the use of existing political and geographic boundaries, as evaluated under the amendment’s tiered framework.
- Under article III, section 16(d), the Court directed that the Legislature must adopt a new joint resolution of apportionment for the Senate that conforms to the Court’s judgment.

## Legal Principles

- Florida’s Fair Districts amendment created a two-tier structure for legislative apportionment: first-tier requirements are mandatory; second-tier criteria apply only to the extent feasible and cannot override first-tier requirements.
- First-tier requirements include: (1) no district may be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent; (2) no district may be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or diminishing their ability to elect representatives of their choice; and (3) districts must be contiguous.
- Second-tier criteria include: districts should be as nearly equal in population as practicable, compact, and (when feasible) use existing political and geographic boundaries.
- The Florida Supreme Court’s apportionment review is a constitutionally required original proceeding in which the Court must interpret and apply the apportionment standards as adopted by Florida voters and issue a declaratory judgment on validity.
- When evaluating compliance, the Court may consider the configuration of districts, including compactness measures and the extent of splits of counties or municipalities, in assessing whether the enacted plan satisfies constitutional requirements under the tiered standards.

## Conclusion

In this mandatory original proceeding, the Florida Supreme Court applied the newly adopted Fair Districts standards to the Legislature’s post-2010 Census maps, upheld CS/SJR 1176’s House plan as constitutional, invalidated the Senate plan for noncompliance with the Florida Constitution under the amendment’s tiered requirements, and required the Legislature to enact a new Senate apportionment plan consistent with the Court’s judgment.


In re Senate Joint Resolution of Legislative Apportionment 1176, 83 So. 3d 597 (2012)