Democrats desperately need a game-changer to help them gain any House seats whatsoever this fall, and they appeared to get a jolt of good news on Thursday when Florida Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis ruled two of the Sunshine State's 27 congressional districts unconstitutional. But there's no guarantee the ruling will have an impact in time for 2014, or affect more than one or two seats.
After a lengthy trial, Lewis concluded in his 41-page ruling that GOP operatives had colluded with legislators to draw a partisan map and make a "mockery" of Florida's new Fair Districts amendments, which prohibit legislators from taking into account political data in drawing districts. Of course, the complexity of this case is that fairness is in the eye of the beholder.
In particular, Lewis objected to the 5th and 10th districts in Central Florida. In fact, it's fairly obvious GOP legislators drew the 10th CD to safeguard GOP Rep. Dan Webster by keeping as many Orlando area Democrats out of his seat and stuffing them into Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown's 5th CD, which meanders
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