An interesting case in the news this week surrounds the ongoing legal battle about the constitutionality of the state’s congressional districts. A divided appeals court ruled that this high-stakes issue should go directly to the Florida Supreme Court.

With this ruling, the 1st District Court of Appeal would not take up a challenge to districts redrawn in August by the Legislature, but instead, the case would go directly to the Supreme Court.  This is a relatively unusual move known as “certification” of the case to the higher court.

Even though the new district lines wouldn’t go into effect until the 2016 elections, the majority of the appeals court acknowledged the lengthy history of the case in deciding to pass it along to the Supreme Court.  There was some dissent as to the necessity of fast-tracking the case because of the 2016 date.  It will be interesting to follow this one.

You can read more here: http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2014-10-01/story/appeals-court-says-redistricting-issue-should-be-fast-tracked-florida