In an emergency request Monday, Attorney General Jay Jones asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause the Virginia Supreme Court’s Friday ruling that nullified the voter-approved redistricting amendment. The pause would allow the Commonwealth to use the 10-1 Democrat-favored congressional maps for the 2026 midterm elections while the appeal is pending.
In its Friday ruling, Virginia Supreme Court justices found that the General Assembly did not follow proper procedure in advancing the redistricting amendment, and therefore, the existing 6-5 Congressional map was to remain in place ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
The Virginia Constitution requires amendments to the Constitution to pass both chambers twice, with an intervening election for the House of Delegates occurring between the two votes. Only then can the amendment progress to receive approval by voters via a statewide referendum.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Friday that because early voting for the November 2025 House of Delegates election had begun Oct. 30 — before the completion of the constitutional amendment process — the November election did not serve as the necessary “intervening” election before referring the amendment to Virginians. Now, Jones is claiming the Virginia Supreme Court incorrectly interpreted “election” to include the entire early voting period, rather than just election day in November itself.
“Based on that novel and manifestly atextual interpretation, the Court overrode the will of the people who ratified the amendment by ordering the Commonwealth to conduct its election with the [6-5] congressional districts that the people rejected,” Jones wrote in his request to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jones continued, writing in the request that the Virginia Supreme Court is “deeply mistaken” on two counts. First, Jones alleged the court misinterpreted the term “election” and second, alleged that this misinterpretation resulted in the court taking power away from the legislature.
“The Supreme Court of Virginia ‘transgressed the ordinary bounds of judicial review such that it arrogated to itself the power vested in the state legislature to regulate federal elections,’” Jones wrote in his request.
Jones filed the emergency request after Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steven Koski stated in a court filing April 23 that congressional maps must be finalized by Tuesday for the Department of Elections to have time to prepare for the 2026 midterms.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who Jones filed the request to and who oversees emergency appeals from Virginia, has not yet responded.
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