A circuit court has ruled that Virginia’s new voter-passed congressional map, gerrymandered to give Democrats in the state a prohibitive advantage in the next congressional election, is unconstitutional.
Judge Jack Hurley, of the Circuit Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia for the 29th Judicial Circuit, Tazewell County, denied a motion to stay his injunction blocking certification of the election using the new districts. Former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli reports that once a final order is drafted and entered, “it will be immediately appealed.”
If the rejiggering survives the challenge, it could be the factor that tips the balance in the House of Representatives toward the Democrats next November.
Cuccinelli, who is now national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, had been saying that passage of the gerrymander would not be the last word. In their rush to get the measure to voters and enacted before November 2026, lawmakers ignored sundry constitutional requirements.
The 2024 special session that took up the redistricting measure had been convened to legislate about the budget. “Its governing resolution limited the session’s scope. Expanding it to include a constitutional amendment on redistricting required a two-thirds vote that never occurred.”
Also, says Cuccinelli, the state constitution requires that “an election must intervene between first and second passage” of a proposed constitutional amendment. “Here, first passage occurred during an election cycle — not before an intervening one.”
Among other problems is the constitutional stipulation that “every electoral district shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory.” The proposed map violates this requirement “badly.”
When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go, and this partisan map must go.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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One reply on “Un-Redistricting Virginia”
Well, we’ll see whether the Supreme Court of the State of Virginia abides by the Constitution of the State of Virginia.
Even if that constitution is not amended before the upcoming midterm election, it will likely be amended before the next General Election, unless the Democrats fall significantly from favor in Virginia before that election. That loss of favor would have somehow to outrace the Curley Effect in that state.
The referendum was an opportunity for voters to rebuke the Democrats for posturing as moderates before the previous election only to govern as far left of center. Instead, a majority of those who voted handed the Democrats a huge award. Virginia is clearly in the process of circling the drain.