Florida Supreme Court dismisses petition that threatened to derail redistricting efforts in the state

The Florida Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ability to change qualification dates to redraw a congressional map.

Justices ruled the Governor’s Office has the power to call the Legislature into Special Session, as he did when he set a Session starting April 20 for lawmakers to conduct redistricting.

DeSantis set that Session concurrent with the qualifying week for federal candidates, so Secretary of State Cord Byrd ordered qualifying for U.S. House candidates to be moved to June, at the same time as state legislative candidates and most other county offices in Florida.

Petitioners, represented by high-profile Democratic election attorney Marc Elias’ law firm, argued in a brief to the state Supreme Court that DeSantis could not usurp the legislative process, dictating when and how lawmakers will convene to undertake a process required under state law just once a decade.

But Justices denied the petition because “it seeks relief that is well beyond the traditional scope” of such requests by challenging a separation of power issues.

Five Justices signed onto the decision, including Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz and Justices John Couriel, Jamie Grosshans, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso. Justice Jorge LaBarga, the only Justice not appointed by DeSantis, concurred “in result.”

Notably, Justice Adam Tanenbaum, the newest appointee to the court, chiefly concurred but did dissent in part. He said Justices wrongly suggested the issue at hand had been well litigated before.

“When a petition (or, for that matter, any initial pleading) fails for a pleading defect, which is the case here, the proper disposition is dismissal,” Tanenbaum wrote. “A denial suggests that we have considered the underlying merits of the petition, which we have not.”

Regardless, the decision removes a significant obstacle that even many Republican political consultants said could derail a mid-decade redistricting effort DeSantis wants to undertake this year.

That means congressional qualifying this year should remain from June 8 to June 12 at noon, and that special rules for qualifying, such as allowing petition signatures from around the state, will likely also remain in place.

Florida is the largest state that has not already redrawn its congressional map ahead of the 2026 Midterms. Texas and California both approved new maps last year that are more friendly, respectively, to Republicans and Democrats.