Florida Redistricting Effort Faces First Legal Challenge

A lawsuit has been brought forth by a group of Florida voters who believe Florida’s redistricting effort violated the state constitution.

May 15, 2026 - 18:32

Florida Redistricting Effort Faces First Legal Challenge

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

Florida’s redistricting effort will face its first legal challenge on Friday, as a state judge will hear arguments from voters who believe the new congressional map violates state law.

According to AP, several lawsuits filed on behalf of a group of Florida voters seek to prevent the new map from being used in the upcoming midterm elections. Last month, the Florida state legislature hastily conducted a redistricting effort that could give Republicans up to four new House seats. Lawsuits were filed against the map almost as soon as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law.

In 2010, Florida voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution that bans U.S. House districts from being drawn with the explicit purpose of favoring or undermining a political party or incumbent. The amendment also bans Florida from redistricting efforts that undermine the ability of any racial or language minority to elect their preferred representatives.

“The plan takes the state’s partisan skew to an unprecedented extreme,” said one of three lawsuits filed in Leon County.

I feel like it’s kind of hard to argue that the gerrymander wasn’t partisan, considering the context of how it came about. Redistricting efforts traditionally occur every 10 years after new Census data is gathered. A Republican led state legislature triggering a redistricting effort shortly before the midterms that just so happens to give their party four extra House seats feels fairly partisan. Additionally, the ongoing redistricting battle is only happening at President Donald Trump’s behest.

While DeSantis has said no racial data was used in constructing the map, I’m very curious to see how Florida officials will try to argue that their redistricting effort isn’t entirely partisan. A legal brief filed by the Florida Senate argued that a temporary injunction against the map would be inappropriate since partisan bias hasn’t been proven. If Florida’s map is banned from being used in the midterms, it’d be a significant setback in the GOP’s redistricting scheme.

Florida is just one of many Red states that have launched a redistricting effort to protect the GOP’s narrow House majority. The redistricting war began last year when Trump asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to trigger a mid-decade redistricting effort that gave the GOP four to five extra House seats in the state. Missouri and North Carolina followed Texas’ example and passed new maps last year, giving the GOP an extra House seat in each state.

The Supreme Court supercharged the GOP’s redistricting efforts in its ruling on Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. As a result, several Southern states have undergone redistricting efforts throughout the month. Tennessee was the first to pass a new congressional map that eliminated the state’s only majority-Black district. Louisiana is currently undergoing a redistricting effort to pass a map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, and the Supreme Court paved the way for Alabama to use a map it previously found to be racially gerrymandered.

Republicans are so desperate to maintain power that they’re willing to disenfranchise Black voters so they can *checks notes* destroy any semblance the U.S. had of a social safety net and continue an unpopular war that’s exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis.