On July 9, the Florida Supreme Court issued an opinion in League of Women Voters of Florida v Detzner, SC14-1905. The order says the state’s U.S. House district boundaries for eight districts violate the State Constitution. The order says the legislature must quickly redraw the boundaries of these eight districts:

5, Corrine Brown
13, David W. Jolly
14, Kathy Castor
21, Theodore E. Deutch
22, Lois Frankel
25, Mario Diaz-Balart
26, Carlos Curbelo
27, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Of course, new boundaries for this districts will mean new boundaries for next-door districts, so probably a majority of the 27 districts will need new boundaries. The vote was 5-2. The State Constitution says that the legislature must not be influenced by considerations of partisanship. The State Supreme Court found that the Republican majority in the legislature had violated that provision of the State Constitution. The lower state court had also invalidated the plan, but the lower court had only ruled that two particular districts needed to be redrawn.

A few Republican Party leaders have expressed the idea that somehow, the party should keep Donald Trump out of its upcoming presidential debates. This National Journal article explains that federal campaign finance laws do not permit that. Debate sponsors must use objective criteria, such as poll results, not political criteria. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for the link.

Will Leitch, an author and blogger who is more noted for his writing on sports, here comments on the Fox News rules for the August 6, 2015 Republican presidential debate. His piece is on Bloomberg Politics. Leitch writes, “Allowing pollsters and television networks to choose who gets to be a candidate long before any actual voter gets to see them is profoundly undemocratic in the purest way.”