Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that an independent state commission can draw federal Congressional districts opens the door for Florida to cure its long history of gerrymandering election maps in order to prevent elections from occurring as intended.

For too long, the state legislature has abused its power when drawing legislative districts, with the end result favoring the party in power at the expense of the rights of our citizens.

In 2010, Floridians overwhelmingly voted to amend the state constitution in an effort to force legislators to act responsibly and in the spirit of an equitable representative democracy when drawing legislative maps. In spite of this amendment, legislators have brazenly continued to draw districts for obvious purposes of political advantage.

What's more, the Republican majority has been joined by Democrats of minority races and ethnicity to form an impermeable wall of defense around the practice of carving districts in a way that will most likely end in a pre-determined result that does not reflect the will of the voters.

It should be a given in a democratic society that voters select their representatives, not vice versa. The current system undermines the integrity of our governments at all levels and severely reduces our credibility when attempting to intervene in democratic disputes elsewhere in the world.

The Florida Supreme Court threw out the legislature's new state senate districts and the map is still being challenged in court. A circuit court also ordered the Congressional map to be redrawn. It too is being challenged in court.

Those changes would still not take effect until the 2016 elections, some six years after the amendment was passed. This is not an acceptable process to be relived after the 2020 census, and there is no reason to expect it would be if left in the hands of the legislature.

We are not arguing that a commission would be a cure all, and it goes without saying that the devil would be in the details. However, there are surely methods of creating and maintaining an impartial, non-partisan commission that could be expected to achieve results markedly better than the deplorable redistricting record of our lawmakers.

related:

Redistricting Trial Provides Inside Glimpse of Our Crooked Legislature