Gov. DeSantis predicts that Florida Supreme Court will validate his congressional map

Gov. Ron DeSantis said a federal court validated his approach to redistricting, and expects the Florida Supreme Court will too.

The Governor cheered a ruling from a three-Judge panel upholding Florida’s congressional map.

“There was a three-Judge panel, federal court, 3-0, upheld the map as being constitutional. And that’s what we said,” DeSantis said at a Fort Lauderdale press conference.

“And then in our state courts, the First District Court of Appeals upheld the map. And there’ll be another review from the Florida Supreme Court, but I don’t think you’re going to see anything different than what’s already been happening.”

DeSantis said the ruling validated his decision to veto maps produced by the Legislature that could have preserved a North Florida seat previously held by a Black Democrat.

“The reality is, we were right in 2022 to veto the map,” DeSantis said.

The ruling, though, doesn’t go that far. It states DeSantis had the authority to veto the maps as Florida’s chief executive.

In a concurring opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, rejects DeSantis’ arguments against the Legislature’s maps. While DeSantis argued that the North Florida district lawmakers wanted to keep violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, he wrote that there is no evidence.

“It is not at all obvious that proposed CD-3 had a fatal compactness problem,” Jordan wrote.

Jordan wrote that DeSantis’ Office, which produced the map ultimately signed, “submitted the Enacted Map with race as a motivating factor.”

But U.S. Circuit Judge Allen Winsor, appointed by Republican President Donald Trump, openly disagreed.

“To me, opposing race-based redistricting cannot be proof of discrimination or racial animus,” Winsor wrote.

Regardless, the case now appears likely to be determined in state courts, where the Florida Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of an appellate ruling upholding the map.

DeSantis said he anticipated the state’s high court will validate his map.

“You get a lot of gnashing of teeth. You get a lot of people that try to offer analysis. And then once this stuff actually comes into, you know, rubber meets the road, turns out they were full of hot air,” DeSantis said.

At the same press conference, DeSantis boasted how his efforts in Florida had led to a Republican majority in the U.S. House.

“We added four Republicans in ’22 to our congressional delegation,” DeSantis said. “Democrats would have the House right now if it wasn’t for Florida, That’s just a fact.”