Florida congressional map

Judge weighs effort to block new Florida congressional map

The new congressional lines have already caused a seismic effect on Florida politics.

By Gary Fineout

Up against looming deadlines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a coalition of civil rights and voting groups pleaded with a Florida judge Friday to block a new congressional map that could net Republicans four extra seats in the Sunshine State.

Circuit Judge Joshua Hawkes, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Ron DeSantis, held a two-hour hearing where lawyers representing the governor and the GOP-controlled Legislature argued over whether the map adopted last month violates voter-approved anti-gerrymandering standards.

Hawkes, who only spoke a handful of times, did not rule at the end of the hearing and said he would issue a written decision after he got a hearing transcript.

The timing of his ruling could play a pivotal role in whether the legal challenge could affect this year’s elections. Congressional qualifying in Florida is scheduled to take place the second week of June. Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer representing DeSantis and the state’s top election official, used the upcoming deadlines as one reason why the newly approved map should be kept intact.

Republicans already hold a commanding 20-8 edge in the state under a map that DeSantis himself muscled through back in 2022. Those challenging the freshly adopted map argue this new map was drawn to answer President Donald Trump’s call for mid-decade redistricting to help Republicans keep Congress.

The coalition of groups — who filed three separate lawsuits that have now been combined into one — say the map runs afoul of the “Fair Districts” constitutional amendment approved in 2010 that bans drawing districts for partisan gain. Instead, they have asked Hawkes to require state officials to use the 2022 map for the midterms. Federal and state courts have previously upheld that 2022 map.

“The evidence here is staggering,” asserted Christina Ford, a lawyer with the Elias Law Group. “This case is simple because the violations of the Fair Districts amendment were announced in a live legislative session for everyone to see. This case is simple because defendants do not attempt to justify the lines and districts that they drew.”

DeSantis had for months said a new map was needed for several reasons, including population shifts since the last U.S. Census and an anticipated U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would curtail the use of racial considerations in redistricting.

The Republican-led Florida Legislature approved the new map in late April primarily along partisan lines just days after the DeSantis administration submitted it to lawmakers after it was given first to Fox News. During a legislative hearing on the map, a top aide to the governor acknowledged he relied on partisan data when drawing what he called a “race neutral” map.

The lawyers for the groups suing — which included Equal Ground and Common Cause of Florida — questioned some of the rationale used for the new maps by pointing out that some areas with high population growth did not have their districts changed. They argued the reason for this was because those districts were all represented by Republicans, while districts in the Tampa Bay and Orlando area had Democratic voters split between multiple districts.

Lawyers for the state argued against the push for a temporary injunction on a variety of procedural and constitutional reasons. One of the key arguments is that the entire “Fair Districts” amendment — including its ban on partisan gerrymandering — is unconstitutional because it includes minority voter protections that have been undercut by rulings from both the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.

“These are the ingredients that go into drawing districts,” said Andy Bardos, an attorney representing the Florida House. “If you have a set of standards that voters have approved and said, ‘okay, this is the combination of standards that we want producing our districts,’ and you take one out, you’re going to get different districts from what the voters wanted when they voted for these provisions. They all work together.”

Jazil also argued that Hawkes should not block the map until a full trial had been held on the legal challenge. “There’s no need to rush,” he insisted.

At one point, lawyers for the state also tried to argue that even if the DeSantis administration drew the map for partisan gain, it doesn’t mean the Legislature intended to help Republicans when they voted for it.

That drew a bit of skepticism from Hawkes, who suggested that legislators were following the lead of the DeSantis administration.

The new maps have only been in place a short while, but they have already caused a seismic effect on Florida politics, leading Democratic incumbents to decide whether to shift districts or stay put and fight in seats that now lean Republican.