Democrats spent millions hiring the most famous election lawyer in America to stop Ron DeSantis from redrawing Florida's congressional map.
It took the Florida Supreme Court two paragraphs to throw the whole thing out.
And the Supreme Court dismissed the challenge brought on behalf of two Florida voters by ruling that the petition sought "relief that is well beyond the traditional scope" of what the court was asked to decide.
The Roadblock That Wasn't
Elias had argued DeSantis had no authority to call the Legislature into special session for redistricting – that it violated separation of powers and that the governor was essentially dictating the legislative process.
The court didn't buy it for a second.
Chief Justice Muñiz wrote that "the Governor has the authority to convene the Legislature in special session by proclamation" and that "the Secretary of State is the chief election officer of the state and has the authority to interpret the election laws."
Case dismissed.
The ruling clears the path to a special session scheduled for April 20 – one that could flip three to five congressional seats from Democrats to Republicans before the 2026 midterms.
https://twitter.com/RealSLokhova/status/2026156295556825152?s=20
What's Actually at Stake
Republicans currently hold 20 of Florida's 28 congressional seats – a dominant position DeSantis built by pushing through a new map in 2022 that eliminated a majority-Black district in North Florida and added four GOP seats.
The Florida Supreme Court upheld that map last July.
Now DeSantis wants to go further.
The seats in the crosshairs belong to some of the most recognizable Democrat names in Florida – Jared Moskowitz, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lois Frankel, Darren Soto.
A new map targeting those seats would leave Democrats with as few as four congressional seats in a state of 22 million people.
Nationally, the stakes couldn't be higher.
Republicans hold a razor-thin 220-213 House majority heading into 2026 – a cycle where the president's party historically loses seats.
Florida's potential five-seat pickup, stacked on top of gains already locked in from Texas, Missouri and North Carolina, could be the difference between Trump governing with a mandate in 2027 and watching Hakeem Jeffries run subpoena hearings against his entire cabinet.
Elias Keeps Losing
Friday's dismissal fits a pattern Marc Elias would rather forget.
The Washington Examiner documented a rough 2025 in court for the Democrat's premier election lawyer – Elias lost high-profile redistricting battles in Wisconsin, where the state's liberal-majority Supreme Court unanimously refused to hear two of his gerrymander challenges, and took losses in multiple other cases designed to block GOP election integrity measures.
https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/2019890310881427818?s=20
Now Florida.
The man Democrats built into a celebrity legal warrior is running into a wall of DeSantis-appointed justices who aren't impressed by separation-of-powers arguments built on contested legal theories.
The clock is ticking.
Congressional qualifying is set for June 8 through June 12.
The April special session goes forward as planned. Wasserman Schultz, Moskowitz, Frankel – they're drawing maps right now in Tallahassee, and those members' names are on them.
Democrats needed a legal miracle.
They got two paragraphs.
Sources:
- Gray Rohrer, "Florida Supreme Court Blocks Challenge to DeSantis' Redistricting Push," News Service of Florida, February 28, 2026.
- Jacob Ogles, "Florida Supreme Court Dismisses Petition That Threatened to Derail Redistricting Efforts," Florida Politics, February 27, 2026.
- Mitch Perry, "DeSantis Links Redistricting to Supreme Court Ruling, But That May Not Come Down by April 20," Florida Phoenix, March 1, 2026.
- Jane C. Timm, "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Calls April Special Session on Redistricting," NBC News, January 8, 2026.
- Fox News Staff, "DeSantis Launches Florida Redistricting for More Republican Seats," Fox News, January 8, 2026.
- "A Rough Year in Court for Marc Elias," Washington Examiner, December 29, 2025.
