A battle over proposed redistricting amendments is turning into an extraordinary legal fight between members of Congress, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, Gov. Charlie Crist and even a former governor.

Last month U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart filed a lawsuit in Leon County to get one of two redistricting amendments sponsored by FairDistrictsFlorida.org thrown off the 2010 ballot. Brown, D-Jacksonville and Diaz-Balart, R-Miami contend the measure is misleading and would reduce the number of minorities elected.

But since then both the Florida House and Florida Senate have gotten permission to join the lawsuit and are now fighting to get Amendment 6 removed from the ballot. Amendment 6 would impose new standards for congressional redistricting. But the Legislature also wants the court to throw out another ballot measure -- Amendment 5 -- that would apply to legislative districts only.

Crist this week has jumped into the legal fray as well, but he wants the court to throw out the lawsuit. Crist’s general counsel argues that both amendments was previously reviewed by the state Supreme Court before they went on the ballot and that the lawsuit is “prolonging a legal imbroglio at the expense of healthy political debate.”

The governor’s legal filing slams the Legislature for launching an “attempt to block the people’s opportunity to weigh in on the way their congressional and legislative districts are drawn.”

Crist, however, is not alone in defending the FairDistrictsFlroida.org amendment. Former Gov. and U.S. Senator Bob Graham has also gotten permission to intervene in the case, arguing that Brown and Diaz-Balart are trying to “nullify” his constitutional right to vote on the amendment.

Florida lawmakers must redraw maps for legislative and Congressional districts every 10 years. Organizers for FairDistrictsFlorida.org gathered nearly 700,000 signatures for each amendment in order to get them on this year's ballot. The two amendments would require legislators to design districts that are compact and do not give an advantage to an incumbent or someone of a particular political party. Sixty percent of the voters must vote yes for the amendment to take effect.

Brown and Diaz-Balart -- and now the Florida Legislature -- contend in their lawsuit that Amendment 6 “misrepresents the major ramifications” that will happen if it passes and that the wording "overstates" protections for minorities. The Florida Senate in its filing also contends that minorities will be harmed if the Senate can no longer take steps to use "incumbency data." The House maintains the amendments would put redistricting in the hands of the state Supreme Court instead of "politically accountable elected officials."

The trial over the two amendments is now scheduled for late July. But this is not the only legal battle going on with redistricting. A separate lawsuit has been filed by the Florida State Conference of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters – to knock Amendment 7 off the ballot.

Amendment 7 is the redistricting measure that was placed on the ballot by the Legislature. Lawmakers say it is meant to clarify the other two measures, but backers of Amendment 5 and Amendment 6 say it would void the requirements of their amendment.

The House and Senate have intervened in that lawsuit and are defending it along with the Department of State. Crist, as previously reported by the Florida Tribune, has filed a brief asking the court to remove Amendment 7 from the ballot.