The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans for an edge in this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n
The court ruled 4-3<\/a> that the state\u2019s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize mid-decade redistricting. Voters narrowly approved<\/a> the amendment on April 21, but the court\u2019s ruling renders the vote\u2019s result meaningless.<\/p>\n Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote that the legislature submitted the proposed constitutional amendment to voters \u201cin an unprecedented manner.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Democrats had hoped to win as many as four additional U.S. House seats under Virginia\u2019s redrawn map as part of an attempt to offset Republican redistricting<\/a> done elsewhere at the urging of President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n Friday\u2019s ruling, combined with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision<\/a> that severely weakened the Voting Rights Act, has supercharged Republicans\u2019 congressional gerrymandering advantage heading into this year\u2019s midterm elections.<\/p>\n \u201cHuge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia,\u201d Trump said about the decision on his social media account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n AP AUDIO: Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats\u2019 redrawn US House maps, giving Republicans a win\n <\/p>\n AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on a setback for Democrats in the ongoing national redistricting battle.<\/p>\n Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the ruling was another sign of GOP momentum heading into the midterms.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re on offense, and we\u2019re going to win,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n Don Scott, the Democratic speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said Democrats respect the court\u2019s opinion but lamented that it overturned the will of the voters: \u201cThey voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab.\u201d <\/p>\n Suzan DelBene, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, criticized the court majority for what she said was a decision that \u201ccast aside the will of the voters,\u201d but she said the people will have the final say.<\/p>\n \u201cIn November, they will, and they\u2019ll power Democrats to the House majority,\u201d she said in a statement.<\/p>\n A flurry of mid-decade redistricting<\/p>\n Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn once a decade after each census to account for population changes. But Trump sparked an unusual flurry of mid-decade redistricting last year by encouraging Republican officials<\/a> in Texas to redraw districts in a bid to win several additional U.S. House seats and hold on to their party\u2019s narrow majority in the midterm elections. <\/p>\n California responded with new voter-approved districts<\/a> drawn to Democrats\u2019 advantage, and Utah\u2019s top court imposed a new congressional map that also helps Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans stand to gain from new House districts passed in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee<\/a>. They could add even more after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in the Voting Rights Act case, which has prompted some other Republican states<\/a> to consider redrawing their maps<\/a> in time for this year\u2019s elections. <\/p>\n Virginia is currently represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans, all elected from districts imposed by a court following a bipartisan redistricting commission\u2019s failure to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts could have given Democrats an improved chance to win all but one of the state\u2019s 11 congressional seats.<\/p>\n The state Supreme Court\u2019s majority was critical of the state\u2019s redrawing of the congressional maps to benefit one political party. Those justices noted that 47% of the state\u2019s voters supported GOP congressional candidates in 2024, but the new map could result in Democrats making up 91% of the state\u2019s House delegation.<\/p>\n What was in Democrats\u2019 map<\/p>\n Under the Democratic-drawn map, five districts would have been anchored in the Democratic stronghold of northern Virginia. Revisions to four other districts across Richmond, southern Virginia and Hampton Roads would have diluted the voting power of conservative blocs in those areas. And a reshaped district in parts of western Virginia would have lumped together three Democratic-leaning college towns to offset other Republican voters.<\/p>\n The state Supreme Court\u2019s seven justices are appointed by the state legislature, which has toggled back and forth between Democratic, Republican and split control over recent years. Legal experts say the body doesn\u2019t have a set ideological profile.<\/p>\n The case before the court focused not on the shape of the new districts but rather on the process the General Assembly used to authorize them. <\/p>\n Because the state\u2019s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose an amendment to redraw the districts. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place the amendment on the ballot.<\/p>\n The legislature\u2019s initial approval of the amendment occurred last October, during early voting for the general election, before it concluded. The legislature\u2019s second vote on the amendment<\/a> occurred after a new legislative session began in January. Lawmakers also approved a separate bill<\/a> in February laying out the new districts, subject to voter approval of the constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n Arguments over the definition of \u2018election\u2019<\/p>\n