Governor Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation on 15 April 2026 delaying Florida's redistricting special session from 20-24 April to 28 April through 1 May, expanding the agenda to include vaccine-exemption and artificial intelligence consumer-protection bills1. DeSantis had originally timed the session to await the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, the pending case on whether Voting Rights Act (VRA) Section 2 still requires states to create majority-minority congressional districts. That ruling has not arrived; supplemental briefing was ordered in October 2025 and remains pending.
The delay produces a scheduling conflict Florida has not yet reconciled. The state's congressional candidate filing deadline is 24 April, four days before the new session opens. In practice, candidates would be required to file before knowing the district boundaries they are filing to represent. No congressional map exists; Senate President Ben Albritton has confirmed the Senate will not draft one, leaving the governor's office to present a proposal on 28 April. The Callais ruling remains the variable that determines whether any map produced survives federal review on the majority-minority district question.
The expanded agenda matters operationally. Adding AI consumer-protection and vaccine-exemption legislation to a session originally framed as redistricting-only dilutes the legislative time available for the map and provides cover for an outcome in which the session closes without one. If the Callais ruling does not land before 1 May, Florida enters the summer with no map, a filed candidate slate tied to 2022 boundaries, and the same underlying constitutional question unresolved.
