Judges in Virginia’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state’s referendum election is voided after they found the legislature didn’t follow the state Constitution. The ruling effectively tossed out a map state Democrats said would give them a four-seat advantage.
The ruling immediately restored the maps the court issued in 2021, which had six Democratic and five Republican seats. The majority of the court opined that because the state’s General Assembly passed the first version of the bill while Virginians were voting in the November election, the legislation’s later passing violated the legislature’s rules.
The state requires constitutional amendments to pass the General Assembly twice, and in two separate legislative sessions, with an intervening House of Delegates election before they are sent to the governor for consideration.
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“This gives voters two opportunities — one indirect, the other direct — to voice their views on the proposed amendment,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote Friday. Chief Justice Cleo Powell, Justice Thomas Mann and Justice Junius Fulton III dissented.
“The majority’s definition creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning, only a definitive end: Election Day,” Powell wrote. “Further, the majority also makes no mention of the two-day gap that begins at ‘5:00 p.m. on the Saturday immediately preceding the election,’ id., or its effect on the ‘election’ process.”
State Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, a Republican, wrote on X Friday that the court ruling affirms that “you cannot violate the Constitution to change the Constitution.”
“The justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia after careful and thorough review of this matter affirmed that even the General Assembly must follow the law,” McDougle wrote. “This ruling is not a partisan one — it’s a constitutional one.”
Democrats have yet to comment on the court opinion.
The referendum, which narrowly passed, would have increased Democrats’ possible seats from six to 10, and reduced Republicans’ from five to one. The state’s Democratic party celebrated the passage on Facebook, writing, “10-1 here we come.”
“Under the proposed new map, approximately 47% of Virginians that voted for representatives of one of the major political parties in the last congressional election would now be represented by 9% of Virginia’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives — while the approximately 51% of Virginians that voted for the other major political party would now be represented by 91% of Virginia’s congressional delegation,” Kelsey wrote.
Where does the country stand on redistricting?
President Donald Trump thrust the country in a fight over congressional maps as he sought Texas politicians to solidify Republicans’ chances of winning the midterm elections. Typically, the sitting president’s party has lost seats in the midterms.
Since then, a number of states have either joined or declined to join in the mid-decade map-drawing melee.
For Louisiana, the legislature is holding public hearings on proposed maps that diluted a Black-majority district into nearby Republican districts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling killed the state’s map that had two Democratic seats and four Republican seats.
As of late, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed a new map into law that his party drew to give them a possible advantage heading into the November election. It eliminated the state’s lone Democratic seat — held by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis — to create nine Republican-friendly districts.
Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton, a Republican, argued that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Louisiana’s maps paved the way for politicians to redistrict off of partisan lines. The new map splits Memphis, splintering the city into several nearby districts.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a map into law that his office proposed that gave Republicans a possible four-seat advantage in the state. The map dispersed districts around Tampa, Kissimmee and the Everglades.
