ACLU OF FLORIDA DEFENDED AMENDMENTS 5&6 PASSED BY VOTERS IN 2010
September 7, 2011 CONTACT: ACLU of Florida Media Office, (786) 363-2737 or media@aclufl.org
MIAMI – This morning, a federal court upheld the Fair District Amendments passed by Florida voters in 2010 by overwhelming majorities. The ACLU of Florida had intervened in the case in defense of the amendments.
After the judge's ruling, ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon said the following:
“I wish that every person in Florida could have been in the courtroom today. Cut through all of the dense, obscure legalisms, what Floridians would have heard is a startling attack by the leadership of the legislature and two members of Congress on the power of the people to regulate their own legislature.
Because of the extremism of the attack on the anti-gerrymandering amendments, I’m not surprised that the judge ruled as she did. I think everybody was surprised, and we are grateful, about the speed with which she resolved this matter. The decision today upholds the clear will of the people; the fair districting process can now proceed.”
Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida, and Laughlin McDonald, Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project were the legal team from the ALCU defending the will of the voters in the courtroom.
A copy of the judge's order is available here: http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/2011-09-09-ACLUFairDistrictsOrder.pdf.
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