The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved congressional redistricting plan, marking another major setback for the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an advantage in this year’s midterm elections.
The court Verdict 4-3 That the state’s Democratic-led Legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot to allow redistricting midway through the decade. Voters It was narrowly approved The amendment is due on April 21, but the court ruling renders the vote result meaningless.
Judge Dr. wrote: Arthur Kelsey argued for the majority that the legislature presented the proposed constitutional amendment to voters “in an unprecedented manner.”
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the vote resulting from the referendum and renders it null and void,” he wrote.
Democrats had hoped to win up to four additional seats in the US House of Representatives under Virginia’s redrawn map as part of an effort to offset Republicans. Redistricting It was done elsewhere at the request of President Donald Trump. Later Friday, Virginia Democrats said in a memo that they intend to file an emergency appeal of the state Supreme Court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Friday’s ruling, in addition to the final ruling US Supreme Court decision This has severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, increasing Republicans’ congressional gerrymandering advantage ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
Trump said about the decision on his social media account: “A big win for the Republican Party and America in Virginia.”
Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the ruling was another sign of the Republican Party’s momentum in the midterm elections.
“We are on the offensive, and we will win,” he said in a statement.
Don Scott, Democratic spokesman for the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court’s opinion but lamented that it overturned the will of voters: “They voted yes because they wanted to fight against Trump’s power grab.”
Susan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court’s majority for what she said was a decision that “ignores the will of the voters,” but said the people would have the final say.
“In November, they will do just that, and push Democrats to the majority in the House,” she said in a statement.
Democrats are taking a long legal step in asking the nation’s highest court to overturn the Virginia ruling. The United States Supreme Court attempts to avoid casting doubt on state courts’ interpretations of their constitutions. In 2023, he refused A request from North Carolina Republicans To overturn a state Supreme Court decision that blocked the Republican Party’s congressional map.
However, even an unsuccessful appeal would allow Democrats to try to blame their failure on the conservative majority that dominates the nation’s highest court, and has already drawn the wrath of the party and civil rights groups by neutering it. Voting Rights Act.
Legislative voting districts are typically redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump sparked an unusual wave of redistricting in the middle of the decade last year Encouraging Republican officials In the state of Texas to redraw districts in an attempt to win several additional seats in the US House of Representatives and hold on to their party’s narrow majority in the midterm elections.
California responded with New districts approved by voters This election has swung in favor of Democrats, and the Utah Supreme Court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans are expected to benefit from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Tennessee. They can add more after the US Supreme Court’s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case prompted them to do so Some other Republican states To consider redrawing Their maps Just in time for this year’s elections.
Virginia is currently represented in the US House of Representatives by six Democrats and five Republicans, all of whom were elected from court-mandated districts after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts would have given Democrats a better chance of winning all but one of the state’s 11 congressional seats.
The state Supreme Court majority criticized the redrawing of congressional maps to favor one political party. These justices noted that 47% of the state’s voters supported GOP congressional candidates in 2024, but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state’s House delegation.
Under the map drawn by Democrats, five districts would have been entrenched in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia. Revisions in four other districts across Richmond, Southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have weakened the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. A reconstituted district in parts of West Virginia would have combined three Democratic-leaning college towns to make up for other Republican voters.
The Supreme Court’s seven justices are appointed by the state Legislature, which has alternated between Democratic and Republican control and is divided in recent years. Legal experts say that the body does not have a specific ideological profile.
The case before the court did not focus on the form of the new districts, but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them.
Because the state redistricting commission was established by a constitutional amendment approved by voters, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw districts. This would require approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with state elections held in between, to put the amendment on the ballot.
The Legislative Council’s initial approval of the amendment came last October, during early voting for the general elections, before their conclusion. Legislative Council Second vote on the amendment This came after the start of a new legislative session in January. Lawmakers too A separate bill was approved In February, the new regions were determined, provided voters approved the constitutional amendment.
Judicial arguments He focused on whether the Legislature’s initial approval of the amendment came too late, because early voting had already begun.
Attorney Matthew Seligman, who defended the Legislature, said the word “election” should be defined narrowly to mean the Tuesday of the general election. In that case, he told the justices, the Legislature’s first vote on the redistricting amendment took place before the election and was constitutional.
But the Supreme Court said in its ruling: “This opinion appears to be completely unprecedented in the history of Virginia.”
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Thomas McCarthy, said the “election” should be interpreted to cover the entire period during which voters can cast ballots, which lasts several weeks in Virginia. If so, he told the justices, the Legislature’s initial approval of the redistricting amendment came too late to be consistent with the state constitution.
The Supreme Court agreed with this argument, writing: “The General Assembly first passed the proposed constitutional amendment well after voters began casting ballots during the 2025 general election.”
By the time lawmakers initially approved the amendment, voters had already cast more than 1.3 million votes in the general election, about 40% of the total votes ultimately cast, the court said.
The Supreme Court ruling affirms a decision made by a judge in rural Tazewell County in southwest Virginia. The court stayed this ruling and allowed voting on redistricting to continue before hearing arguments on the case.
In dissent from Friday’s ruling, Chief Justice Cleo Powell said that elections for the purpose of considering the amendment do not include an early voting period.
“The definition of a majority creates an endless voting loop that seems to have no fixed beginning, only a definitive end: Election Day,” she wrote.