League of Women Voters v. Data Targeting, Inc.

140 So. 3d 510, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 355, 2014 WL 2186202, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 1704
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMay 27, 2014
DocketSC14-987
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 140 So. 3d 510 (League of Women Voters v. Data Targeting, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
League of Women Voters v. Data Targeting, Inc., 140 So. 3d 510, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 355, 2014 WL 2186202, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 1704 (Fla. 2014).

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This case is before the Court on an emergency petition for the issuance of a constitutional writ, filed by the League of Women Voters of Florida, Common Cause, and eleven individually named parties, who are all plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutional validity of the 2012 plan apportioning Florida’s congressional districts under the “Fair Districts Amendments” approved by Florida voters in 2010 to prohibit improper partisan and discriminatory intent in redistricting. See art. Ill, § 20(a), Fla. Const. The Respondents — political consulting organization Data Targeting, Inc., its president, and two company employees — are non-parties to the litigation that possess documents that the Petitioners contend demonstrate “the surreptitious participation of partisan operatives in the apportionment process,” in alleged violation of the Fair Districts Amendments to the Florida Constitution.

In consideration of the parties’ arguments, this Court’s case law, and the importance and statewide significance of this case, and for the reasons that follow, we grant the petition. Pursuant to our constitutional authority to issue “all writs necessary to the complete exercise of [our] jurisdiction,” art. V, § 3(b)(7), Fla. Const., we stay the enforcement of the First District Court of Appeal’s order that reversed the circuit court and prevented the disclosure or use of the documents at trial.

Based on the narrow and specific relief requested in the emergency petition, we determine that the circuit court is not precluded from admitting the documents into evidence, subject to a proper showing of relevancy, but that any disclosure or use of the documents must take place under seal in a courtroom closed to the public. We conclude that this is the only adequate, available remedy to maintain the status quo during the trial that is current[512]*512ly ongoing, and that there is a strong likelihood of irreparable harm to the Petitioners if the trial is conducted without the ability to offer this evidence — and no harm to the Respondents if the documents, which have already been produced, are admitted in this manner. In fact, this is similar to the remedy the Respondents themselves originally proposed in the circuit court after producing the documents. See Non-Parties’ Motion to Determine Confidentiality of Court Records at 8, Romo v. Detzner, Nos. 2012-CA-00412 & 2012-CA-00490 (Fla.2d Jud.Cir.Ct. May 12, 2014). However, in granting the petition, we emphasize that this opinion is not a determination that these documents will be permanently under seal or that they are in fact protected by the associational privilege and should be shielded from the public.

BACKGROUND

The issue presented by this emergency petition for extraordinary writ relief concerns certain documents in the possession of non-parties to the redistricting litigation, which are allegedly relevant to the constitutional claims currently being argued in the trial that is taking place in a Leon County circuit court. After the circuit court determined that the challenged documents were not privileged, the Respondents subsequently produced the documents to the trial judge and to counsel and experts for the Petitioners, although the circuit court directed that the documents would remain confidential. See Romo v. Detzner, Nos. 2012-CA-00412 & 2012-CA-00490, Order at 2-3 (Fla.2d Jud. Cir.Ct. May 2, 2014).

The circuit court stated that it would provide further guidance at a later time as to how the documents could be used at trial, see id. at 3, which the court then did in a second order entered two weeks later, in anticipation of the start of the trial the following week. See Romo v. Detzner, Nos. 2012-CA-00412 & 2012-CA-00490 (Fla.2d Jud.Cir.Ct. May 15, 2014). In this order, the circuit court determined that the documents themselves were to remain confidential, even “if offered as an exhibit in witness examination or entered into evidence in the trial of this case,” but that the proceedings “shall remain open” during use of the documents by any party at trial. Id. at 3.

Thereafter, in a short ruling that promised a forthcoming opinion explaining its reasoning in greater detail, the First District reversed the circuit court, stating in full as follows:

The orders of the lower tribunal entered May 2, 2014, and May 15, 2014, are REVERSED to the extent the orders permit any degree of disclosure or use at trial of the constitutionally-protected contents of the privileged and confidential documents that are the subject of those orders. See Perry v. Schwarzenegger, 591 F.3d 1147 (9th Cir. 2010). An opinion of this court explaining its reasoning will follow.

Non-Parties, Pat Bainter, Matt Mitchell v. League of Women Voters of Fla., No. 1D14-2163 (Fla. 1st DCA order filed May 22, 2014) (reversing circuit court).

The case cited by the First District in its order arises from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and pertains to the First Amendment associational privilege. See id. (citing Perry, 591 F.3d 1147). The First District also denied the Petitioners’ emergency motion to stay its decision during the pendency of the trial. See Nom-Parties, Pat Bainter, Matt Mitchell v. League of Women Voters of Fla., No. 1D14-2163 (Fla. 1st DCA order filed May 22, 2014) (denying emergency request for stay).

[513]*513The following day, the Petitioners filed the emergency petition now before this Court, seeking to stay the enforcement of the First District’s order precluding the admission of the documents “so that the trial can be completed with this evidence, which has already been disclosed to the parties’ counsel and the trial court, in time for the trial court to fashion meaningful relief before the upcoming 2014 midterm elections.” The petition asserts that these documents are relevant to the Petitioners’ claims as to the unconstitutionality of the 2012 congressional apportionment plan because they allegedly indicate that the non-parties worked with other partisan operatives to submit, through “public front persons,” draft redistricting maps for the Legislature’s consideration. In other words, the Petitioners contend that these documents are important evidence for establishing their claim that there was “a parallel redistricting process” to the open and transparent one, which was “conducted in the shadows” in an effort to “sub-vertí] the public process” and produce a partisan map favoring Republicans and incumbents in violation of the Florida Constitution.

DISCUSSION

Since the passage of the Fair Districts Amendments, this Court has considered their impact and the “more stringent requirements as to apportionment” that they provide in a series of important decisions. In re Senate Joint Resolution of Legislative Apportionment 1176 (Apportionment I), 83 So.3d 597, 598 (Fla.2012); see also In re Senate Joint Resolution of Legislative Apportionment 2-B (Apportionment II), 89 So.3d 872 (Fla.2012); Fla. House of Representatives v. League of Women Voters of Fla. (Apportionment III), 118 So.3d 198 (Fla.2013); League of Women Voters of Fla. v. Fla. House of Representatives (Apportionment IV), 132 So.3d 135 (Fla. 2013).

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Related

The League of Women Voters of Florida, etc. v. Ken Detzner Opinion
172 So. 3d 363 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2015)
Pat Bainter, as Non-Parties v. League of Women Voters of Florida
150 So. 3d 1115 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2014)
THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN Voters of etc. v. Ken Detzner And Pam Bondi
178 So. 3d 6 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)
Non-Parties v. League of Women Voters of Florida
150 So. 3d 221 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
140 So. 3d 510, 39 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 355, 2014 WL 2186202, 2014 Fla. LEXIS 1704, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/league-of-women-voters-v-data-targeting-inc-fla-2014.