What's going on with trial court 'consolidation'? It looks a lot like Florida-style gerrymandering

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What’s going on with trial court ‘consolidation’? It looks a lot like Florida-style gerrymandering

A new push to “consolidate” Florida courts has people talking about politics — more precisely, about gerrymandering.

A committee of 14 stakeholders in the judicial system met for the first time Friday. They have 4½ months to formulate an answer to this question: Does the state need all 20 of its trial court circuits?

But what’s billed as a no-brainer, long overdue shake-up to streamline court operations and save money isn’t so simple, knowledgeable observers say. They contend that consolidation has much more to do with redrawing the judicial circuit map so Republicans can put the voters they want in the places they want them; in a word, gerrymandering.

The observers consider who raised the court consolidation issue, who’s leading the exploratory committee and the timing related to next year’s elections. They track a record that shows the Republican leaders of Florida’s unitary government want a court system devoted to boosting the state party’s standard-bearer, presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“It would certainly seem incongruous for Republicans to claim they have no designs to increase their control of the judicial system,” legal historian Neil Skene said.

“Consolidation may mean that there are fewer courthouses and reduced availability to people, especially those with transportation challenges,” he said. The committee probably won’t focus on public access to courts, however.

A GOP-FRIENDLY MAP

It’s way too early to predict how a new map would look, but if gerrymandering to favor the party in power is the objective, here’s one possible scenario:

Imagine — it’s not hard — Republican legislators want to install a Republican as state attorney in the 13th Judicial Circuit, where DeSantis suspended Warren.

Hillsborough County, which comprises the entire 13th Judicial Circuit, leans Democratic. The neighboring 12th Judicial Circuit consists of Manatee, DeSoto and Sarasota counties, all Republican strongholds. So if the 12th and 13th circuits were combined, a Republican candidate for state attorney would have a greatly enhanced shot at winning.