Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court is the highest court in Florida's judicial system, comprising seven justices who serve six-year terms subject to merit-retention votes. It has final authority on questions of Florida state law, including constitutional interpretation, and its decisions on state constitutional matters cannot be appealed to the US Supreme Court. Justices are selected through a judicial nominating commission whose members are appointed by the governor, then appointed by the governor from a shortlist. As of 2026, six of the seven seats are held by justices appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, a concentration achieved through a wave of retirements on mandatory age grounds and the appointment of Adam Tanenbaum in January 2026 as the sixth DeSantis seat.

On 10 June 2026, the court voted 6-1 to decline jurisdiction over the Fair Districts challenge to Florida's 24R-4D congressional map, deferring to the First District Court of Appeal. The sole dissenter was Justice Jorge Labarga, the only non-DeSantis appointee, who argued the court had jurisdiction and that deferring past the qualifying calendar would eliminate any chance of pre-election review. The court did not rule on whether the map violates Florida's Fair Districts constitutional amendments, which ban maps drawn to favour a political party. Three days after the ruling, the US House candidate qualifying deadline closed on 13 June, locking the map for November.

Democracy Docket and the Brennan Center both characterised the ruling as a jurisdictional avoidance that achieves the same outcome as a merits ruling for the state without the court ever endorsing the map. The 6-1 split along appointment lines is the operative fact: the court composed of the governor's own appointees declined to examine the governor's own map before the qualifying clock ran out. The Equal Ground Education Fund challenge continues at the 1st DCA, but a post-election remedy cannot affect the 2026 cycle.