{"id":57,"date":"2026-05-24T22:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=57"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:41:10","slug":"republican-legislators-urge-justices-to-leave-virginia-supreme-courts-redistricting-ruling-in-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=57","title":{"rendered":"Republican legislators urge justices to leave Virginia Supreme Court\u2019s redistricting ruling in place"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators (along with an election official and two registered voters) urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon to leave in place a ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court which struck down an amendment to that state\u2019s constitution allowing the Virginia General Assembly to enact a new congressional map. Calling the request to pause the state supreme court\u2019s ruling \u201cextraordinary,\u201d the legislators stressed that the case involved \u201cstate courts applying state law to hold state actors accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more When (if ever) it\u2019s appropriate to make jokes, take selfies, or curse before the court<\/a><\/p>\n

The came just three days after the state\u2019s attorney general, Jay Jones, and other Virginia Democrats asked the justices to block the state supreme court\u2019s decision and allow the state to use the new map, which is expected to strongly favor Democrats, in the 2026 elections.<\/p>\n

The Virginia General Assembly had adopted the new map in February of this year, as part of the ongoing effort by states across the country to give one political party or the other an advantage in the U.S. House of Representatives. But before the state could actually use the map, it needed the state\u2019s voters to approve an amendment to the Virginia constitution that would give the General Assembly the power to draw a new congressional map outside of the normal cycle following the decennial census. Voters approved that amendment\u00a0in April by a margin of around three percentage points.<\/p>\n

A divided Virginia Supreme Court\u00a0invalidated the amendment on May 8. It because the General Assembly had not followed proper procedures when it put the new amendment on the ballot, the referendum was not valid. Specifically, the majority reasoned, under the state constitution the General Assembly must approve a proposed amendment to the constitution during two different legislative sessions, which must be separated by an election to the General Assembly\u2019s House of Delegates. But in this case, the majority said, more than 1.3 million votes had already been cast by the time the General Assembly first voted on the amendment on Oct. 31, 2025, and thus \u201cthe General Assembly passed the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time well after voters had begun casting ballots during the 2025 general election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Court rules freight brokers can face negligent hiring suits under state law<\/a><\/p>\n

Jones and the Virginia Democrats defending the General Assembly\u2019s actions came to the Supreme Court on Monday, asking the justices to intervene. They contended that the dispute implicates \u201ctwo critical issues of federal law\u201d \u2013 specifically, the meaning of the term \u201celection\u201d under federal law, and the idea that the state court so \u201cimpermissibly transgressed the ordinary bounds of judicial review\u201d that its ruling should be reversed. Moreover, they added, the Virginia Supreme Court\u2019s ruling \u201coverthrows [a] democratic outcome just days before the Commonwealth must begin its preparations to administer the 2026 midterm election.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their filing on Thursday afternoon, the Republican legislators countered that it is too late for the Supreme Court to intervene now because Jones had \u201c\u2018identifie[d] May 12 as the point of no return\u2019 for on-the-ground election preparations.\u201d Indeed, they noted, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has now indicated that Virginia will not use the 2026 map in the upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court should also leave the Virginia Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in place, the legislators continued, since Jones and the Democrats did not make any of their arguments based on federal law until they reached the Supreme Court. Because they \u201cnever raised federal claims below,\u201d the legislators contended, \u201c[t]he Virginia Supreme Court didn\u2019t decide any. This Court shouldn\u2019t consider them for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Justice Clarence Thomas reflects on shared values and his \u201cdeeper\u201d friendships on a past court<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators (along with an election official and two registered voters) urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon to leave in place a ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court which struck down an amendment to that state\u2019s constitution allowing the Virginia General Assembly to enact a new congressional map. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-news"],"yoast_head":"\nRepublican legislators urge justices to leave Virginia Supreme Court\u2019s redistricting ruling in place - American Service Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=57\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Republican legislators urge justices to leave Virginia Supreme Court\u2019s redistricting ruling in place - American Service Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawyers for a group of Republican legislators (along with an election official and two registered voters) urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon to leave in place a ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court which struck down an amendment to that state\u2019s constitution allowing the Virginia General Assembly to enact a new congressional map. 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