Equal Ground challenges Florida’s new congressional map in court

The Equal Ground Education Fund has filed a legal challenge against Florida’s new congressional map. A lawsuit was filed by Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias’ firm less than two hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the map.

A new lawsuit filed in Leon County circuit court asserts that the new map was drawn in violation of Florida’s Fair Districts amendment. That section of Florida’s Constitution, which was approved by voters in 2010, bars the drawing of congressional districts with intent to favor or disfavor a political party.

“Despite that constitutional mandate, Florida has become the latest battleground in an unprecedented nationwide effort to redraw congressional maps for partisan gain outside the traditional decennial redistricting cycle,” the new lawsuit reads.

Jason Poreda, a senior government analyst in DeSantis’ Office, testified in a Senate Rules Committee hearing last week that partisan data was used to “balance” the map. At the same hearing, Mohammad Jazil, counsel for the Governor’s Office, argued officials no longer needed to adhere to Fair Districts because the Florida Supreme Court undermined portions of it related to nondiminishment of minority voices, though he acknowledged the amendment had never been challenged or tossed.

The lawsuit takes issue with that testimony.

“Both the map drawer and its proponents have thus effectively conceded that the 2026 Plan does not comply with the Florida Constitution,” the lawsuit states. “And consistent with that understanding, the 2026 Plan proceeds to carve up the state to advantage the Republican Party.”

Under the new map, which was first released to Fox News with districts colored red or blue, there are 24 U.S. House seats where a majority of voters supported Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election, and just four where most voters backed Democrat Kamala Harris.

Under the congressional map governing Florida elections in 2022 and 2024, Republicans won in 20 U.S. House seats while Democrats won in eight. That means the new map could net House Republicans four seats in Florida.

Much of the lawsuit details the changes to specific districts

The lawsuit also questions claims by DeSantis’ office that the map was drawn in a “race-neutral” fashion, or that the Legislature isn’t still bound to preserve the ability of minority communities to elect a U.S. Representative of their choice.

“On race neutrality, no court has held that the Fair Districts Amendment’s race provisions are unconstitutional, particularly if they can be implemented alongside traditional redistricting criteria, as the Legislature has long acknowledged they can be,” the lawsuit states.

Equal Ground will lead the legal challenge, 18 individual voters are also listed as plaintiffs in the suit. The Florida chapter of the equal rights group signaled as soon as maps were passed by Florida’s Legislature that they would challenge the cartography as unlawful.

“The Legislature’s decision to pass these rigged congressional maps is a direct slap in the face to millions of Floridians who were counting on their elected leaders to follow the law and uphold the Constitution. Instead, they chose politics over people,” said Genesis Robinson, Equal Ground Executive Director.

“This brazen power grab makes one thing clear, the loyalty of the legislators who voted for this gerrymandered map lies not with the voters they were elected to serve, but with Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.”

The group also said DeSantis had hijacked the process, as he did four years prior.

“It is shameful the Legislature abdicated its constitutional responsibility by allowing Governor DeSantis to draw these maps himself. He wrote them, and now he has signed them into law. That is not how our system is supposed to work,” Robinson said.

“What we saw today is a blatant violation of both the law and the trust of the people. We are calling on the courts to intervene and put a stop to this unconstitutional and undemocratic power grab. Floridians deserve fair maps. And we will not stop fighting until we get them.”