Judge strikes down Virginia Democrats’ plan to redraw congressional districts

A Virginia judge ruled on Tuesday that a proposed constitutional amendment letting Democrats redraw the state’s congressional maps was illegal, setting back the party’s efforts to pick up seats in the US House in November.

Tazewell circuit court judge Jack Hurley Jr struck down the legislature’s actions on three grounds, including finding that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session.

His order also said Democrats failed to approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and did not to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law.

As a result, he said, the amendment was invalid and void.

Don Scott, the Virginia house speaker , who was listed in Republicans’ lawsuit over the resolution, said Democrats would appeal the ruling.

“Nothing that happened today will dissuade us from continuing to move forward and put this matter directly to the voters,” Scott said in a joint statement with other state Democratic leaders.

Virginians for Fair Elections, a campaign that supports the redistricting resolution, accused conservatives of filing their lawsuit in a known GOP-friendly jurisdiction, saying: “Republicans court-shopped for a ruling because litigation and misinformation are the only tools they have left.”

Donald Trump launched an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle last summer when he urged Republican officials in Texas to redraw districts to help the GOP win more seats, hoping to hold on to a narrow House majority in the face of political headwinds that typically favor the party out of power in midterms.

So far that battle has resulted in nine more seats that Republicans believe they can win in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and six that Democrats think they can win in California and Utah. Democrats hope to fully or partly make up that three-seat margin in Virginia.

As in Virginia, redistricting is still being litigated in several states, and there is no guarantee that the parties will win the seats they have redrawn.

Other states still could join the fray: Wes Moore, the Democratic Maryland governor, is pushing for revised districts that could help Democrats win all eight of the state’s House seats, up from the seven they currently hold, and Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor, plans to call a special session on redistricting in April.

Hurley’s ruling comes after lawmakers said they would unveil their proposed new House districts to voters by the end of this week.

The state is now represented in the House by six Democrats and five Republicans from districts whose boundaries were imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census.

Because the commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers have to revise the constitution in order to be able to redraw maps this year. That requires they pass a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between.

Virginians would have to vote in favor in a referendum.