Overview
- Florida’s governor signed a new congressional map Monday, and hours later voting-rights lawyer Marc Elias sued on behalf of Equal Ground and voters to keep it off the 2026 ballot.
- The lawsuit says the plan violates Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment, which forbids drawing districts to favor a party, and critics fault the rushed rollout, one-day notice, and narrow Senate passage after Fox News saw the proposal first.
- The DeSantis-backed lines could add up to four GOP seats by reshaping districts in Tampa Bay, Central Florida, and South Florida, shifting the delegation from 20–8 to a possible 24–4.
- Following Monday’s move in Florida, Alabama and Tennessee called special sessions to pass new maps under the same legal logic, with Tennessee leaders targeting Memphis’s lone Democratic seat for a partisan split that Republicans say would add a House seat.
- Republican officials cite a Supreme Court decision on Louisiana that narrowed when states must draw additional majority-minority districts, and judges must now decide under tight June 8–12 filing windows how these changes affect minority voters and the 2026 map.