Virginia Supreme Court throws cold water on Democratic-favored congressional map
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 6 months ago • 3 commentsBy: Zach Schonfeld and Julia Mueller (The Hill)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Virginia Supreme Court threw out state Democrats' redistricting referendum on Friday, ruling 4-3 that it didn't follow the proper procedures and handing a huge political blow to the party in the process.
The decision casts aside the state's new congressional map that would've given Democrats a 10-1 tilt in Virginia. Under the ruling, the 6-5 map will stay in place.
"This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void," Justice Arthur Kelsey wrote for the majority.
The decision could have large ramifications this fall in the battle for the House, where Democrats hope to win back the majority and put a curb on President Trump during the second half of his second term.
Republicans can only lose a few seats and still hold the House majority. The political winds have been moving in the direction of Democrats given President Trump's low approval ratings, and the president's party usually loses seats in a midterm.
But Republicans are doing everything they can to bolster Trump by redrawing congressional lines in the states they control. Democrats have fought back most notably in California, but the Virginia decision would damage their chances of giving their candidates a more favorable map in that state.
Virginia voters last month had approved a state constitutional amendment that allowed the Legislature to temporarily draw new lines mid-decade, a move pitched by Democrats as a response to the redistricting in red states backed by President Trump. The map was set to give Democrats four more pickup opportunities this fall as the party fights to flip the House.
But legal challenges contended the push violated procedural requirements baked into the Virginia Constitution. To pass an amendment, lawmakers must vote for it in two separate legislative sessions, with an intervening election in between.
Virginia Democrats took the first vote on Oct. 31 of last year, arguing they could still act because Election Day wasn't until the next week. But the state's high court ruled it was too late, emphasizing early voting was open by that point, with 40 percent of ballots already cast.
"While the Commonwealth is free by its lights to do the right thing for the right reason, the Rule of Law requires that it be done the right way," Kelsey wrote.
In dissent, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said the majority was broadening the definition of an "election."
"The majority's definition creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning, only a definitive end: Election Day," Powell wrote.
The decision caps months of litigation over Virginia Democrats' redistricting effort. The Republican National Committee (RNC) and other groups had fought the push across several different cases.
"Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats' unconstitutional maps," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. "The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won."
Trump called the ruling a "huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia" in a post on Truth Social.
He added, "The Virginia Supreme Court has just struck down the Democrats' horrible gerrymander. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D) said in a statement shared by Punchbowl News that "no decision can erase what Virginians made clear at the ballot box."
"We respect the court. But we will keep fighting for a democracy where voters — not politicians — have the final say," Scott said.
The co-chairs of Virginians for Fair Maps, one of the groups backing a no vote on the referendum, bashed the redistricting push as "an unconstitutional effort by Richmond Democrats to carve up the state for themselves" and thanked the state justices for the ruling.
The Virginia high court's ruling is the latest in a whirlwind of developments on the redistricting front in recent weeks.
Shortly after Virginia's referendum, Republicans in Florida parried with a GOP-favored map that effectively offset the would-be Democratic gains in the Old Dominion, adding to the redistricting arms race that kicked off with a Republican-friendly redraw in Texas last year.
The Supreme Court also rattled the redistricting landscape last week with a landmark ruling on Louisiana's congressional maps, weakening a key section of the Voting Rights Act and prompting more states to weigh changes ahead of the midterms.
Tennessee state lawmakers this week approved a new map aimed at drawing out its lone Democratic seat in the lower chamber, and other red states in the South are eyeing similar changes that could tilt the fight for the House further toward the GOP.
Virginia had already pushed back this year's primaries from a June date to Aug. 14 to account for the referendum on redistricting. Early voting is set to start next month.
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I had conceded that democrats would inevitably retake the House of Representatives this November, but this ruling and the SCOTUS recent ruling on section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has caused me to reconsider the GOP's chances of holding on.
After all the recent events and special elections that have played so well for democrats, I think Republicans finally have something to feel good about.
Despite the process being flagrantly illegal, I was shocked the Virginia Supreme Court found it so as I thought the court had a progressive majority and progressive judges almost never vote against the political desires of the democrat party. Turns out the court doesn’t seem to have four progressives, which makes sense,
the democrats in Virginia have turned their party over to a yet another in long line of corrupt lunatic who pushed this despite being warned by smarter democrats like Tim Kaine who can read and count and knew what the ultimate result would be. Louise Lucas’s response to their warning was to say she wouldn’t take advice from people sitting in a “cuck chair.”
Between Jay “i want the kids of my opponents to be murdered” jones and the soon to be jail bound Lucas, Virginia sure does love their crazy extremist progressives.
I am glad I was not forced into a district with Northern Virginia