Florida Department of State v. Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches

Summary

The court affirmed the circuit court's decision removing proposed Amendment 7 from the November 2010 ballot. It held that the ballot language failed to inform voters that the amendment could subordinate the existing mandatory contiguity requirement for legislative districts and that the ballot title misleadingly portrayed the proposal as creating standards when it actually replaced mandatory standards with discretionary considerations. Justice Pariente, concurring, emphasized the voters' right to understand whether an amendment alters existing constitutional rights, while Chief Justice Canady, dissenting, would have held that the amendment preserved and required implementation of the contiguity requirement.