*Breaking News* Virginia Supreme Court Overturns Democrat Gerrymander, Negating A Four-Seat Pickup - Big Contrast From What Happened in California
The stark contrast between how the VA and CA Supreme Courts handled challenges to Dem-led redistricting efforts raises serious questions about whether politics is truly absent from the courts...
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⏰ 5-minute read
What Just Happened In Virginia?
In a stunning decision Friday morning, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the state’s voter-approved congressional redistricting amendment and the Democrat-backed congressional map that came with it.
The ruling was 4–3.
The practical effect? Democrats likely just lost a potential four-seat pickup in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The current Virginia congressional delegation is effectively split 6–5 in favor of Republicans. The now-invalidated Democrat map was expected to flip that balance dramatically, potentially producing a delegation closer to 10–1 Democratic.
But notably, the Virginia Supreme Court did not even weigh in on the merits of the congressional maps themselves.
The court did not rule that the districts were unfair.
It did not rule that the lines were unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.
Instead, the court overturned the entire process strictly on procedural constitutional grounds.
The Virginia court ruled that the constitutional amendment process itself violated Virginia’s Constitution because lawmakers failed to properly satisfy the requirement that constitutional amendments pass in two separate legislative sessions with an election in between. The court agreed with Republicans that early voting had already begun before the first legislative approval, meaning the constitutional process had already been compromised before voters ever cast ballots on the amendment itself.
That is not a small distinction.
The court essentially concluded that constitutional procedures still matter — even when the political stakes are massive and even when voters ultimately approved the measure itself.
And with that ruling, the court effectively erased what Democrats hoped would become one of the largest mid-decade congressional gains anywhere in the country.
But what makes this story even more remarkable is not simply what happened in Virginia…
It’s what did not happen in California…
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Below the paywall:
What California Republicans argued when they challenged Sacramento Democrats’ redistricting maneuver.
Why the California Supreme Court declined to hold oral arguments on those constitutional complaints.
Why the partisan makeup of the Virginia, California, and Florida Supreme Courts matters in this fight.
How Friday’s ruling changes the national redistricting scoreboard.
Why Louisiana v. Callais may open the door to more Republican redraws across the South.
Why control of state supreme courts may now matter almost as much as control of legislatures.
