Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats’ redrawn US House maps, giving Republicans a win

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down the voter-approved Democrats’ congressional redistricting plan, handing the party another major defeat in the nationwide fight against Republicans for the upper hand in this year’s midterm elections.

The court ruled 4-3 that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it brought to a vote the constitutional amendment allowing redistricting in the middle of the decade. voters narrowly approved The change was made on April 21, but the court’s decision renders the results of that vote meaningless.

Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the legislature presented the proposed constitutional amendment to voters in an “unprecedented manner.”

“This breach irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it void.” he wrote.

Democrats were hoping to win four additional U.S. House seats based on Virginia’s redrawn U.S. House map as part of an attempt to balance Republicans redistricting It was done elsewhere upon his insistence. President Donald Trump. This decision, combined with a recent decision US Supreme Court decision The significant weakening of the Voting Rights Act has strengthened Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year’s midterm elections.

Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the decision was another sign of the GOP’s momentum heading into the midterm elections.

“We are on the offensive and we will win,” he said in a statement.

Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respected the court’s opinion but complained it subverted the will of the voters: “They voted YES because they wanted to fight Trump’s seizure of power.”

Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court majority for calling it a decision that “set aside the will of the voters,” but said the people will have the final say.

“They will do it in November and give Democrats a House majority,” he said in a statement.

Mid-decade redistricting rush

Legislative voting districts are redrawn every decade, usually after each census, to account for population changes. But Trump launched an unusual redistricting rush last year in the middle of the decade. Republican officials encouraged They plan to redraw districts in Texas in an effort to gain a few additional U.S. House seats and maintain their party’s slim majority in the midterm elections.

California responded new districts approved by voters This worked to Democrats’ advantage, and the Utah high court imposed a new congressional map that would also help Democrats. Republicans, meanwhile, stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee. They may add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Voting Rights Act case. some other Republican states thinking about redrawing their maps in time for this year’s elections.

Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by six Democrats and five Republicans elected from court-determined districts after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts would give Democrats a chance to win all but one of the state’s 11 congressional seats.

The Supreme Court’s majority criticized the state’s redrawing of congressional maps to benefit a single political party. Those justices noted that 47% of the state’s voters support GOP congressional candidates in 2024, but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state’s House delegation.

What was on the Democrats’ map?

Under the map drawn by Democrats, five counties would be anchored in the Democratic stronghold of Northern Virginia, including one stretching like a lobster to consume Republican-leaning rural areas. The revisions to four other counties in Richmond, Southern Virginia, and Hampton Roads would weaken the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of West Virginia would bring together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.

The state Supreme Court’s seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has vacillated between Democratic, Republican and divided control in recent years. Legal experts say the institution does not have a specific ideological profile

The case before the court focused not on the form of the new districts but on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.

Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw districts. This required that a resolution be approved in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election held in between, before the amendment could be put to a vote.

The legislature’s initial approval of the amendment occurred last October; while early voting is ongoing, but before it concludes on general election day. of the legislature second vote on the amendment It occurred after a new legislative session began in January. MPs too approved a separate bill Determination of new districts subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment in February.

Debates over the definition of ‘election’

judicial arguments The focus has been on whether the legislature’s initial approval of the amendment came too late, as early voting for the 2025 general election has already begun.

Attorney Matthew Seligman, defending the legislature, argued that “election” should be narrowly defined to mean the Tuesday of the general election. He told the justices that in this case, the legislature’s first vote on the redistricting change occurred before the election and was constitutional.

But the Supreme Court said in its decision: “This view appears to be completely unprecedented in Virginia history.”

Thomas McCarthy, the plaintiffs’ attorney, argued that “election” should be interpreted to include the entire period during which people can vote, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If that was the case, the legislature’s initial approval of the redistricting amendment was too late to comply with the state constitution, he told the justices.

The Supreme Court agreed with this argument, writing: “The General Assembly first adopted the proposed constitutional amendment long after voters began voting during the 2025 general election.”

By the time lawmakers first approved the constitutional amendment, voters statewide had already cast more than 1.3 million ballots in the general election, about 40% of the total votes cast, the court said.

The Supreme Court’s decision affirmed a judge’s decision in rural Tazewell County, southwestern Virginia. The court put that decision on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments in the case.

Chief Justice Cleo Powell, who dissented from Friday’s decision, said the election to consider the amendment did not include an early voting period.

“The definition of majority creates an endless cycle of voting with no defined beginning,” he wrote, “only one definitive end: Election Day.”