Democrats Throw Hail Mary to Supreme Court as GOP Steal Seats
Democrats asked the Supreme Court Monday to block a state court ruling that upended their redistricting efforts.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that proposed cards were essentially invalid because state Democrats failed to follow proper procedure. In Virginia, the General Assembly is required to pass a constitutional amendment not once, but twice. The first vote must take place during a regular legislative election, while the second must take place afterwards, before the question is put to voters.
The court ruled last week that although state Democrats complied with these regulations, the time frame in which the investigation was conducted was compromised because early voting on the issue was already underway. The party’s unsuccessful counterargument relied on long-standing U.S. Supreme Court rulings that even if early voting is underway, an election will not be held until Election Day itself.
Virginians narrowly passed the referendum last month, despite a 2020 state policy that relegated redistricting to 10-year intervals aligned with the national census. About 50.3 percent of the state voted to redraw the electoral map, giving their representatives a chance to pick up more Democratic seats in the House of Representatives in the midterms.
The new maps were expected to change the state’s congressional distribution to overwhelmingly favor Democrats, from a 6–5 split to 10–1.
“The Court overrode the will of the people who ratified the amendment by ordering the Commonwealth to conduct its elections in the congressional districts that the people had rejected,” lawyers for the Virginia Democrats and the state’s Democratic attorney general, Jay Jones, wrote in a statement obtained by the Associated Press. The attorneys added that “the irreparable harm resulting from the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision is profound and immediate.”
The court decision was a major setback for the national liberal party, which had placed enormous weight on Virginia to thwart successful Republican redistricting efforts in other parts of the country, such as Texas and Florida. Filing the case before the Supreme Court is an act of desperation as the party seeks various solutions to offset the Republican national advantage heading into the midterm election cycle.
Lawmakers met with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Saturday to discuss other potential solutions following Virginia’s decision, including a wide-ranging proposal to redraw the state’s congressional lines anyway.
