Brown, Diaz-Balart File Suit in Florida Circuit Court to Stop Deceptive Amendment 6

WASHINGTON, DC-This week Congresswoman Corrine Brown (FL-3) and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25) filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee seeking to strike a deceptive Ballot Amendment from the November 2010 Ballot. Brown and Diaz-Balart contend that the Ballot Summary for the proposed Amendment 6 creates false expectations and promises, and was drafted to mislead voters. Rather than empower minority voters, Amendment 6 will significantly dilute Minority voting strength in Florida.

“Amendment 6 is riddled with inconsistencies and if passed, would set unworkable standards in drawing districts,” said Diaz-Balart.

Amendment 6 requires the creation of “Compact Districts”, while at the same time requiring that the Legislature use existing city and county boundaries, wherever feasible. Most of Florida’s municipalities do not have compact borders. Therefore, it is functionally impossible to comply with both standards. In that regard, the Amendment is crafted to ensure litigation over the plans, when one or the other standard is necessarily not complied with.

Moreover, the impact on minority representation will be drastic. “Amendment 6 is nothing more than a dressed-up attempt to reduce minority representation,” said Brown. “Minority communities don’t live in compact cookie-cutter neighborhoods. The requirement of compactness will defeat the ability of the Legislature to draw viable access and Majority-Minority seats. This Amendment is nothing more than a deceitful attempt to turn the clock back to the days before 1992 when Florida did not have any African-American representation in Congress.”

The proposed Ballot Summary of Amendment 6 promises that Congressional Districts will be drawn to allow minorities to elect their chosen Representatives. However, the Amendment, if passed, would prevent any district from being drawn that would favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent resulting in the lack of ability to draw minority districts.

“The reality is that minority constituents are overwhelmingly registered in one party. This requirement may prohibit drawing of Minority-Majority Districts and Minority Access Districts that exist today, since drawing a similar district will necessarily favor the incumbent or the political party to which he or she belongs,” said Diaz-Balart.

“The legal protections to ensure fair Redistricting that have existed for decades, including the Voting Rights Act, have been used effectively in the last two decades to increase Minority representation and provide Minority Communities an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice,” said Representative Brown. “Not only will this not remedy any claimed injustice, but also take us back to the days when the rights of Minority Communities to effectively participate in the political process will take a back seat to the Special Interests that promote this Amendment.”

For more than 20 years, Brown and Diaz-Balart have been fighting for fair minority representation and were successful in a 1992 lawsuit against the state of Florida that allowed minorities to elect representatives of their choice. If passed, Amendment 6 would revert redistricting in Florida back to the days of unfair representation and voters will be disenfranchised from being able to vote for candidates of their choice.