In a 4-3 decision Friday, the Supreme Court of Virginia issued a ruling which affirmed the Tazewell County Circuit’s position on redistricting, nullifying the results of the Commonwealth’s contested April 21 redistricting vote.
“We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia,” the Virginia Supreme Court decision read. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy.”
The decision blocks Democratic-led efforts to instate a 10-1 Congressional map. The ruling, in which justices found that the General Assembly did not follow proper procedure in advancing the amendment, will allow the existing 6-5 Congressional map to remain in place for the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
Prior to Friday’s decision, Democratic lawmakers argued that the attempt to advance the Constitutional amendment was an effort to counteract Republican-led mid-decade redistricting in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Florida at the urging of President Donald Trump.
The General Assembly first approved the proposal in October — one week before the November General elections — and the newly-elected legislature passed it again on “second reference,” leaving voters with the final say last month. The measure narrowly passed with 51.7 percent of the vote.
However, the amendment was not approved by voters without legal scrutiny. Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack S. Hurley ruled in January that Democrats improperly advanced the proposal on procedural grounds. The redistricting effort was allowed to proceed while the courts processed the legal arguments.
According to the Constitution of Virginia, a proposed constitutional amendment must be passed by the General Assembly, go through an “intervening” House of Delegates election and then be re-passed by the new legislature before voters have the final say. Hurley’s ruling, however, determined that because early voting had already begun Oct. 30 and millions of Virginians had cast a ballot by that date, the November election had already begun and was not “intervening.”
The Virginia Supreme Court agreed with this procedural argument in its ruling Friday. After allowing the referendum vote to proceed while justices considered the case — costing both Republicans and Democrats over $83 million in their efforts to mobilize voters for the April 21 election — the Court released a majority opinion Friday, drafted by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, in which he affirmed Hurley’s decision.
In his ruling, Kelsey took issue with the Commonwealth’s arguments aimed at convincing the court that the November election officially took place on Election Day and qualifies as “intervening,” even though weeks of early voting occurred prior. Kelsey concluded that the winner of an election is determined at the conclusion of voting, but that this has no bearing on when the election actually begins.
The dissenting opinion was drafted by Chief Justice Cleo Powell and signed onto by Justices Thomas Mann and Junius Fulton. They argued that the decision creates an “infinite voting loop” that does not clearly define when elections begin. They said that the amendment process satisfied the intervening election procedural requirement.
“[According to the majority,] an election is a process that begins with early voting, but early voting must precede an election,” the dissenting opinion read. “The majority’s decision creates an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning, only a definitive end.”
Shortly after the ruling was made public, Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) expressed her disappointment in a press release Friday with the court’s decision to go against the majority of Virginia voters who cast ballots in the April 21 election.
“More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia’s redistricting referendum, and the majority of Virginia voters voted to push back against a President who said he is ‘entitled’ to more Republican seats,” Spanberger’s statement read. “I am disappointed … but my focus as Governor will be on ensuring that all voters have the information necessary to make their voices heard this November.”
Conversely, Attorney General Jay Jones — who represented the Commonwealth — released a statement in which he clarified that he would enforce the decision, but he said the Virginia Supreme Court is being increasingly overtaken by politicization.
“The Supreme Court of Virginia has chosen to put politics over the rule of law,” Jones’ statement read. “The Republican-led majority of the Supreme Court of Virginia contorted the plain language in the Constitution and Code of Virginia to give it a meaning that was never intended.”
State Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-4) — who was the plaintiff in the case — spoke with members of the press in Capital Square in Richmond shortly after the decision was released. He said the justices “got the decision right.”
Friday’s ruling gives Republicans a clearer lead nationwide ahead of the November midterms.
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