Ryan Ray
Pensacola Rep. Mike Hill has written an open letter addressed to Speaker Steve Crisafulli slamming the recent Florida Supreme Court decision in League of Women Voters v. Dentzner.
Hill cited the Federalist Papers and originalist constitutional arguments in bashing the court for “playing a most dangerous” game when it struck down eight congressional districts drawn by the Legislature in 2011 and then revised in 2014.
“Under the guise of interpreting Sections 20 and 21 of Article III of the Florida Constitution — Florida’s new Redistricting Amendments — the court is systematically rewriting the Constitution,” Hill wrote. “Most significantly, the Court has cast aside the notion of separation of powers so vital to our Republican and indeed our State. We must act now.”
Hill went on to inveigh against what he described as a systematic erosion of legislative power perpetrated by the judicial branch.
“Through exception after exception, justified almost always by the same 5-2 majority, the Florida Supreme Court continues to chip away at this Legislature’s laws under the Florida Constitution and under common law,” Hill wrote.
“The Court has held that the Legislature is no longer entitled to the presumption that its enactments are valid; its members are no longer entitled to the protection of legislative privilege, and must report to interrogations concerning their legislative actions; its members can no longer conduct legislative business consistent with the Legislature’s own internal operating procedures; and the Legislature must draw Florida’s Congressional Districts as specifically directed by the Court.”
