Marc Caputo: Both Sides Now.

Certainly one of the most frequently voiced criticisms of the mainstream media is the use or overuse of false equivalencies -- the notion that "both sides do it" in exactly the same amount, in exactly the same way, there is no difference between the two sides, and therefore we the mainstream media are perfectly balanced in repeatedly noting this enduring political reality.

And let me get my "to be sure" paragraph out front about Marc Caputo -- he's a very good reporter, exceptional perhaps (clearly for the Herald), and that's why it's distressing to see Marc's recent trend of looking around and finding the exact same thing on both sides of the aisle.

Here's Marc today finding both sides to be in exact equipose regarding Trayvon Martin.

Here's Marc last month finding exact equipose between Marco Rubio birthers and Obama birthers.

Marc, enough!  Get back to your good, solid reporting.

Question -- is everything always binary?  Maybe there are more than two sides?  Are the two sides always exactly the same?  On some issues could one side be worse than the other?

Ok, actual legal news -- the Florida Senate has hired our own Raoul Cantero (at $695 an hour) to lead the charge on a second bite at redistricting.

Check out the retainer agreement here.

And no, I'm not commenting on the tribe suit -- the complaint seems like a cheap shot to me.

Seriously, who gives a holy hail about somebody's clocks?

A Few Good Men.

This shouldn't have been necessary, as every lawyer deserves to be paid for their good work, but perhaps that is what makes the sacrifice especially noteworthy:

An internal squabble between the lawyer representing Eric Brody and his former employer is behind the sudden decision to scrap all fees.

“By declining all fees it will make sure that Eric doesn’t have to pay $1 million to a bunch of rich lawyers that never did anything” on the case, said Lance Block, Brody’s attorney. Block said his former employer, West Palm Beach law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, hired a lobbyist to try and collect part of the $10.75 million payment.

The dispute over fees is recounted in more detail here.

In other news, the Florida Supremes have approved the House redistricting plan and rejected the Senate map.

Very interesting 200+ page opinion from Justice Pariente (with cool embedded color maps!).

Remember to retain these judges!

Gaze Upon Judge Ungaro's Fair Districts Order!

I had the pleasure at lunch to catch the always intrepid Julie Kay on the airwaves today, on the publicly-funded radio station that has single-handedly brought America to her economic knees (you know, the same one that airs "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me").

Julie was informative and knowledgeable as always.

But during the course of the discussion Jim DeFede made a good point -- why is it that the Florida legislature is overwhelmingly Republican, often by lopsided majorities and populated with quite conservative lawmakers, yet in the Florida general elections (President, Senator etc.) the splits are more 50/50 and the majorities typically razor-thin?

Short answer: gerrymandering.

That's a nice segue for Judge Ungaro's order upholding on summary judgment the Fair Districts constitutional amendment, which starts off pretty old-school (as in The Framers old-school):

Both sides agree that the case turns on the Elections Clause, and both make passing references to the intent of the Framers. Yet absent in the briefs of both sides is any true attempt to analyze the origins of the Elections Clause. It is as if the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, the state ratification debates, and the First Congress lay somehow beyond the reach of these litigants.

The Judge then jumps into the old Constitutional Convention time machine, determines that Smiley Smiley was a pretty good Beach Boys album after all (read the order!), and concludes that Florida voters can pretty much screw around with their own Constitution however the hail they like.

Have a great weekend!

GrayRob Scores Big in Tally!

So thank God the legislative session is over.

One big winner -- the "extremely Floridian" GrayRob.

Consider:

They're getting over $700k in taxpayer monies to fight the Fair Districts redistricting amendments:

Most of the money, of course, will go toward attorney fees. The Sentinel reported that House Speaker Cannon has already burned through $800,000 in the redistricting fight. And $700,000 of that went to GrayRobinson, the Orlando-based firm that also happens to be Cannon’s former employer. Small world, I guess.

It is a small world.

Perhaps that is why GrayRob was tapped to defeat a claims bill for Eric Brody, who was paralyzed 13 years ago thanks to the BSO and is still waiting for justice:

The Brody bill became one of the most heavily lobbied of what are known as claims bills. The proposal, which has had different incarnations over the years, was long opposed by BSO and its insurance company.

The company formerly known as Ranger Insurance was represented this year by Peter Antonacci, a lobbyist with the firm Gray Robinson — the former employer of House Speaker Dean Cannon.

Hmm, how about that -- I wonder if there's any connection?

Well, congrats on an "extremely Floridian" job well done!

Mario Diaz-Balart Loses Another Redistricting Legal Challenge.

In a series of rulings on Constitutional amendment ballot initiatives set for the November election related to redistricting, the Florida Supreme Court put the kibosh on the latest legal challenge to the FairDistricts initiative:

In another decision, the Supreme Court ruled to stop a suit intended to remove Amendments 5 and 6 from the ballot. A group of incumbent politicians tried to take a second bite of the apple by raising issues they could have raised earlier. The court’s decision soundly rejected the politicians’ challenge, thus reaffirming that the FairDistricts Amendments will be on the ballot this November. A YES vote on 5 & 6, will stop politicians from selecting their voters and put power back in the hands of the people.

Amendments 5 and 6 will:
•Prohibit politicians from designing districts to favor themselves or their parties;
•Require them to make the districts compact and community based; and
•Make it impossible for legislators to draw districts to diminish the ability of minority voters to elect representatives.

The local "incumbent politician" is Mario Diaz-Balart, and the Florida Supreme Court opinion is here.

Justice Polston, who coincidentally will be in Miami next week to speak at a Federalist Society dinner, concurred in part and dissented in part.