Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new appointee to the Florida Supreme Court co-authored a key decision siding with the governor’s successful 2022 push to redraw the state’s congressional maps, which dismantled a majority-Black district in North Florida and ultimately helped flip control of the U.S. House to the Republicans.

First District Court of Appeal Judge Adam Tanenbaum would be a critical ally to DeSantis on a high court that the governor has already shaped significantly: Tanenbaum is DeSantis’ sixth appointment to the seven-member court, picked to fill the seat vacated by Justice Charles Canady, who left the court to direct the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. 

Tanenbaum’s appointment comes as the governor and Legislature are again considering congressional redistricting, which typically only happens every 10 years, following the completion of the U.S. Census.

The mid-decade push follows calls from President Donald Trump to redraw maps for Republicans’ advantage ahead of the 2026 midterms. It’s an effort that Florida Democrats have called illegal, citing a voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution, called Fair Districts, that is supposed to ban partisan gerrymandering and require map makers to protect minority voting power.

In upholding DeSantis’ map in 2023, Tanenbaum criticized past redistricting rulings by the Florida Supreme Court, which, over the objections of the Republican-controlled Legislature, had previously upheld a Tallahassee-to-Jacksonville congressional district that preserved minority voting power in North Florida. Tanenbaum’s dismissal of that precedent – issued during an era in which the state Supreme Court was viewed as less dogmatically conservative – drew an unusual rebuke from his colleagues on the higher court, who said appeals court judges had a duty to follow precedent even when they disagreed with it. 

If that irked Tanenbaum’s peers on the bench, however, it seemed to deepen DeSantis’ faith in him. 

“I think he’s done very well as a judge. He’s written a lot of very important opinions,” DeSantis said of Tanenbaum, touting the judge’s knowledge of the executive branch, which the governor said may rival his own. 

“He knows the pressure points,” DeSantis said, adding that Tanenbaum’s rulings have been “right on every time.”

A reliable conservative

Tanenbaum’s past suggests he will be a reliable ally for conservative causes on a court that has moved significantly rightward during DeSantis’ tenure.

Tanenbaum has held roles in all three branches of Florida’s Republican-dominated government, serving as general counsel to the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Department of State, and as Florida’s chief deputy solicitor general, as well as an assistant federal public defender. Tanenbaum also had a four-month-stint as an attorney for the Republican Party of Florida, among other positions in private practice and public service.

In recent years, the conservative-majority Supreme Court has upheld laws expanding abortion restrictions and allowing non-unanimous jury recommendations for the death penalty, as well as the governor’s preferred redistricting maps.

Tanenbaum, who DeSantis previously appointed to the First District Court of Appeal in November 2019, is also a member of the Federalist Society, a powerful conservative organization influencing the American judiciary, and which has significant sway among Florida’s judges. 

At Wednesday’s appointment announcement in Seminole, Fla., DeSantis predicted that Tanenbaum will “bat a thousand” on the high court he has remade.

Speaking Wednesday, Tanenbaum described himself as an “originalist,” signaling a belief that the meaning of the text of the Constitution “is fixed at the time of its ratification or enactment, and that original meaning does not change over time.”

“Our goal as judges is always to find the correct original meaning of the law,” Tanenbaum said, adding that his vision for the court is “the same as the governor’s” – that the state Supreme Court should be “a national leader” in “originalist jurisprudence and judicial administration.”

A key ruling on redistricting

In December of 2023, Tanenbaum co-authored a significant appeals court decision on congressional redistricting, siding with DeSantis after the governor pushed the Legislature to pass new maps that broke up a North Florida district that for years had elected Black representatives. 

A lower court had sided with voter advocates in what’s known as the Black Voters Matter case, finding that the new maps violated Florida’s Constitution, which requires map makers to preserve the ability of minority voters to elect representatives of their choice. This tracked with the Florida Supreme Court’s past interpretation of what the Fair District amendment required.

DeSantis argued that this requirement was in conflict with the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because it used race as a primary factor when creating maps.

The appeals court decision co-authored by Tanenbaum struck down the lower court decision and argued that some of the state Supreme Court’s previous rulings on redistricting should not be considered binding precedent, characterizing them “as decisions of limited application, with no real purchase in a direct appeal.”

In a subsequent opinion, the state Supreme Court – Tanenbaum’s future colleagues – harshly criticized the appeals court decision and its reasoning, even as it reached the same result. 

The high court upheld the governor’s maps, finding that the Legislature’s responsibility to adhere to the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection clause supersedes its obligation to comply with the “non-diminishment” clause in the Fair Districts amendment. But the state Supreme Court nonetheless reprimanded the appeals court for what it termed its “wrong” and “mistaken view” that its prior decisions weren’t binding.

“Even when a district court disagrees with a decision of this Court, it is the lower court’s duty to follow our precedent,” Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz wrote for the court. “We reject the First District’s contrary approach.”

Democratic state Sen. Tracie Davis, whose Jacksonville district overlaps with the congressional district at issue, said Tanenbaum’s appointment sends a “clear message” as the Legislature ramps up for an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting push.

“It will be the governor’s mandate instead of the right thing to do by the Fair District amendment, the right thing to do by the Constitution,” Davis said. “It will be the governor’s way.”

The executive director of Equal Ground, a voter empowerment organization that was one of the plaintiffs in the Black Voters Matter case, argued the court is being “engineered to entrench power.”

“[T]he message is unmistakable,” executive director Genesis Robinson said in a statement, “politicians will be given free rein to choose their voters and bend the system to serve themselves, while everyday Floridians pay the price and lose representation within the state government.”

Kate Payne is The Tributary’s state government reporter. She can be reached at kate.payne@floridatrib.org.