Florida Supreme Court Allows Newly Drawn Congressional Map

Democratic Candidate For Congress In Florida Oliver Larkin Holds Town Hall On Redistricting Map — Source: Joe Raedle / Getty

Well, the GOP has notched another victory in the ongoing redistricting battle. Florida’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the state can conduct its midterm elections using a recently redrawn map.

AP reports that in a 6-1 ruling, the court found that the First District Court of Appeal (1st DCA) should consider the merits of the case before it weighs in on the matter. The lawsuit was filed by a group of voters who believed that Florida’s recent redistricting effort violates the state constitution’s ban on partisan redistricting. Since the lawsuit is still pending in a lower court, the Florida Supreme Court believed it lacked jurisdiction to grant a temporary injunction against the map.

“At this time, we do not have jurisdiction over that matter, and we do not simply assume that the First District’s decision will provide an appropriate basis for this Court’s review,” the court ruling states.

According to CBS News, Justice Jorge Labarga, the lone dissenter, pushed back against the idea that the court didn’t have the jurisdiction to rule on the map. Labarga expressed frustration with the 1st DCA for failing to expedite the process before this Friday’s filing deadline, which will lock the districts and candidates in place.

“Had the district court invoked pass-through jurisdiction here, doing so would have established an independent basis for this Court’s jurisdiction in this matter,” Labarga wrote. “Unfortunately, for now, and with a filing deadline and an election fast approaching, we will not have the opportunity to review the issues of statewide importance raised in the petitioners’ efforts to enjoin Florida’s 2026 congressional map.”

Florida’s map is already heavily skewed toward Republicans, with the GOP holding 20 of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats. The new map would potentially give Republicans another four House seats in the state. Florida’s Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier defended the new districts in court and declared “complete and total victory” in a social media post.

“The Florida Supreme Court’s failure to stop this brazen partisan power grab is not only an assault on democracy, but an abdication of its duty to the people of Florida,” Genesis Robinson, executive director of Equal Ground, a community organizing group that sued the state, said of the ruling.

Amy Keith, executive director of Common Cause Florida, told AP that the new map is “a pretty clear partisan gerrymander,” and added that her organization is “going to do everything we can to prevent this map from impacting further, future elections.”

Should the 2028 election lead to Democrats controlling Congress and the Oval Office, there’s got to be something done on the federal level about redistricting. Congressional maps are typically redrawn every 10 years in response to new Census data. That’s changed over the last year, after President Donald Trump successfully convinced several Republican governors to trigger mid-decade redistricting efforts focused on protecting the GOP’s narrow House majority.

While California successfully passed through a redistricting effort, giving Democrats five new House seats, state laws have hampered most Blue states from effectively passing counter efforts.

Trump and the Republican Party are incredibly unpopular on the national level, yet they could very well maintain control of Congress this fall simply through redrawing the maps. They are effectively using the new maps to undermine the will of the people and hold the country hostage to their whims. That’s not exactly a sign of a healthy democracy.