The Bradenton Sun reports:  State lawmakers facing uncertainty, intra-party tensions. Racial divisions in Florida’s increasingly diverse state have become a tense undercurrent coursing through the redistricting debate in Tallahassee as lawmakers decide how far to go to carve out new districts for Florida’s growing ethnic minorities.

Two highlights which made the eyebrows raise:

Senator Arthenia Joyner made the following comment: “That was the whole reason why we got (Amendments) 5 and 6,” Joyner said. “To make it possible for other Democrats to be elected so that (blacks) won’t continue to be in the minority.”  Her startling statement revealed what many Republicans suspected:  That the Democrat Party’s true intent in support of Amendment 5 and 6, otherwise known as Fair Redistricting, was to actually increase their overall partisan representation at the expense of Black representation.  While some Black leaders objected because it may impact current majority minority districts, other African-American legislative leaders such as Joyner believe that unless they are in the majority, the interests of minorities cannot be adequately represented. 

And then add these comments from Professor Susan MacManus on the lack of clarity with the term “retrogression. “Nobody knows how the courts are going to view retrogression,” said USF’s MacManus. “Everybody knows that it is the most important aspect to getting plans cleared through the courts, and yet it is the issue with the least clarity.” 

This observation coming from a professor who actually wrote a book on redistricting.  Unfortunately, she fails to understand that the only institution that has the secret-evolving formula to retrogression is the Department of Justice.   That is, at least, until the Supreme Court clarifies. 

Her shared confusion may ring true to the Supreme Court as they may soon decide how the invasive nature of Section 5 preclearance can possibly be upheld when no one, including the line-drawers, understand it.  When DOJ’s so-called guidelines provide no such guidance, there may be a problem.