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A ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday (May 8) has effectively struck down a congressional map proposal that could have granted Democrats four additional seats in the midterms.
In a 4-3 ruling, the court found that state Democrats did not follow proper constitutional procedures when introducing an amendment to bypass the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission in a push to redraw maps before the midterms, according to Virginia Mercury.
The ruling keeps the state’s current congressional districts in place, which gives Democrats a 6-5 advantage. The proposed districts could have potentially given Democrats four more seats, changing the margin to a 10-1 advantage.
The majority-Democratic General Assembly initially introduced the amendment during a special legislative session held in October of last year.
Although both chambers advanced the proposal in October and approved it a second time when lawmakers returned to the Capitol in January, Tazewell County Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled it invalid, arguing lawmakers failed to follow constitutional procedures. A lawsuit filed by Republican lawmakers and members of Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting commission agreed with Hurley’s ruling.
While the Supreme Court still allowed the referendum to proceed at the time, they did not resolve any legal challenges. In today's opinion, the justices wrote that Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution requires “an intervening general election” between the legislature’s first and second approvals of a constitutional amendment, allowing for voter input.
“The purpose of Article XII, Section 1 is to give voters the opportunity to participate in the process of amending their Constitution,” Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote. “The commonwealth in this case … ended up denying over 1.3 million Virginians their constitutional right to have a voice in the debate over whether their Constitution should be amended.”
Voters ultimately approved the referendum by roughly three percentage points on April 21, but Hurley ruled it invalid again the day after, blocking state and local officials from implementing it. The Supreme Court declined to block Hurley's ruling back then while it was still being weighed. Now, the court has effectively eliminated the General Assembly’s proposal altogether, dealing a major blow to Democrats' chances in the midterms.
“Today the Supreme Court of Virginia has chosen to put politics over the rule of law by issuing a ruling that overturns the April 21 special election on redistricting,” Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement Friday. “This decision silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots in every corner of the commonwealth.”
Jones claimed that the amendment process was legally sound despite pushback from Republican lawmakers, and accused the Virginia Supreme Court Republican-appointed majority of “contort[ing] the plain language of the Constitution and Code of Virginia.”
Although Jones said his office would evaluate “every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people,” legal analysts told Virginia Mercury that a further appeal is unlikely, as the case largely centers on the Virginia constitution and the timing of the proposal ahead of the midterms.
House Speaker Don Scott, one of the amendment's chief architects, told the outlet that while he respects the court’s ruling, he believes the referendum still reflects the will of millions of Virginian voters.
“Three million people voted in a free and fair election,” he said in a statement. “We gave this decision to the voters — exactly where it belongs — and they spoke loud and clear.”
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