Ron DeSantis defends constitutionality of ‘political gerrymandering’

Those who draw the maps make the rules, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In a post to X, DeSantis argued that courts are “likely to find racial gerrymandering to be unconstitutional” because the Constitution bans “discrimination based on race.” But the Governor sees nothing in the document that prohibits a legislative map skewed to one party’s benefit.

“The Constitution says nothing about political gerrymandering, which is why the Court has found such claims to be non-justiciable,” DeSantis said. “A court can’t just find things to be unconstitutional because it doesn’t like them; there needs to be a basis in the text, history and structure of the Constitution for its decision.”

While that’s true of the federal Constitution, it’s more debatable regarding the Florida Constitution.

“No apportionment plan or individual district shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent; and districts shall not 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 to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice; and districts shall consist of contiguous territory,” reads language adopted in 2010.

Regardless, DeSantis’ point applies to the federal document ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.

That case could overturn prohibitions against racial gerrymandering that he hopes invalidates districts drawn to protect minority access, giving DeSantis at least an outside shot at a window to draw maps for a second time during his term.

The Governor has been vocal about Florida being underrepresented, saying a “flawed census” can somehow be unilaterally changed by the U.S. Commerce Department.

DeSantis has also said the White House could “award” Florida more representation, as well as saying the state was “gypped” out of a seat. He has also blamed former President Barack Obama, who served from 2009 to 2017, for Florida’s post-2020 census map that his office drew up and compelled the Legislature to approve ahead of the 2022 elections.

Florida was cheated, according to DeSantis, despite the 20-8 majority Republicans now hold in the congressional delegation. To put that supermajority in perspective, there are a little more than 1.3 million more Republicans than Democrats in a state with nearly 13.6 million registered voters.