Law professor Robert Jarvis said key provisions of the Fair Districts Amendment could survive despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed into law a new congressional redistricting map designed to elect four more Florida GOP Congress members, triggering a voting-rights lawsuit that argues the new map violates the state constitution.
DeSantis posted on X a copy of the new map with the heading “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” in the wake of last week’s special session of the Legislature, which approved the map drawn up by the Governor’s Office. Republican congressional representatives in Florida currently outnumber Democrats 20 to 8, but the new map creates 24 Republican-leaning districts for November’s midterm elections.
A lawsuit filed in the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County by the Equal Ground Education Fund and several Florida voters alleges that the new map violates the Fair Districts Amendment to the Florida Constitution, which voters approved in 2010. The amendment contains a ban on partisan gerrymandering and districts that are not “compact,” as well as a provision barring maps that diminish the ability of racial or language minorities to elect representatives of their own choosing.
The Legislature approved the new map during the same week when the U.S. Supreme Court voted to weaken the federal Voting Rights Act in the case of Louisiana v. Callais, concluding that a second majority-minority district in Louisiana was an illegal racial gerrymander. The decision could potentially lead to other states doing away with majority-minority congressional districts, except in cases in which intentional discrimination is proved.
The Governor’s Office believes the Fair Districts Amendment no longer applies in the wake of recent court decisions and that “the map’s legal justification depended on the Florida Supreme Court striking down the Fair Districts Amendment in its entirety,” according to the lawsuit.
But law professor Robert Jarvis of Nova Southeastern University said key parts of the Fair Districts Amendment could survive.
“I think the part of Fair Districts that bars gerrymandering on the basis of race now is dead due to Callais and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” Jarvis told the Florida Record in an email. “But I think the rest of Fair Districts is severable and is not impacted by Callais.”
Language in the amendment that says “districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or to diminish their ability to elect representatives of their choice” could be struck down without affecting the other provisions, according to Jarvis.
“This actually is an easy lift for a court,” he said.
But even so, observers acknowledge that getting the state’s high court to strike down the new map is a tall order, considering that DeSantis appointed six of the seven members of the court.
The news platform Democracy Docket, which was founded by voting-rights attorney Marc Elias, said the Florida map is part of a national plan to produce more GOP congressional members during the midterm elections.
“The redrawn congressional map is in coordination with President Trump’s broader mid-decade redistricting plan to secure additional Republican congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections,” Democracy Docket reported. “Texas, North Carolina and Missouri have already passed new maps favoring Republicans without approval from the voters.”
Last week, the Florida Democratic Party said the U.S. Supreme Court did not have the authority to rewrite the Florida Constitution.
“Florida Democrats will use every tool available under our state constitution to fight these illegal maps and stop this power grab,” the party said in a statement. “And we will make clear to every voter in this state: While Washington weakens your protections, Florida Democrats are fighting to hold the line.”
In contrast to blue states such as California and Virginia, Florida made no attempt to amend its constitution to allow for partisan gerrymandering during the midterm elections, the lawsuit says.
“Unlike these other states, Florida’s constitution continues to expressly prohibit partisan gerrymandering – a constraint the Legislature chose to ignore,” the complaint states.
