Virginia court puts pause on voter-passed congressional maps boosting Democrats

One day after voters in Virginia approved new congressional maps intended to make it easier for Democrats to flip four Republican House seats in the midterms, a court ruled the referendum invalid.

The proposal sought to change the state constitution to set aside the nonpartisan redistricting process voters authorized six years ago until 2030, and passed by about three percentage points, 51.5% to 48.5%, according to the Virginia department of elections.

But on Wednesday, Judge Jack Hurley Jr of the Tazewell county circuit court blocked the state from taking any action to implement the new districts, following a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee. The committee had argued to the court that the timing and phrasing of the measure were illegal.

Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general, said his office planned to appeal the ruling.

“As I said last night, Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote. We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court,” Jones said.

The Republican National Committee praised the decision, calling it a “major victory” for Virginians and alleged Democrats “lied and deceived” voters to advance the referendum.

“Democrats attempted to force an unconstitutional scheme to tilt congressional maps in their favor, but the court recognized it for what it is – a blatant power grab,” Joe Gruters, the RNC chair, said in a statement.

Democrats, meanwhile, sharply criticized the development and have described the Republican lawsuit as frivolous.

“Republicans have repeatedly taken challenges to the Virginia referendum to a local judge in the most conservative part of the state to get silly rulings that are immediately overturned on appeal, mainly so they can add the word ‘illegal’ to their talking points about it,” wrote Aaron Fritschner, an aide to the Democratic US representative Don Beyer.

“The Virginia Supreme Court will have the last say on the referendum but this rando judge in Tazewell is just giving them free in-kind messaging contributions, which is the whole point.”

The battle over the congressional maps emerged after Donald Trump sought to use mid-decade redistricting in order to keep his party’s control of Congress. At the president’s direction, lawmakers in Texas last year redrew the state’s congressional maps in an effort to oust up to five Democratic representatives in the midterms. Months later, California voters retaliated by approving a proposition to redraw the state’s voting maps to favor Democrats, which could flip five seats held by Republicans.

After her January inauguration, Virginia’s Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, backed the effort to redraw her state’s congressional maps.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed

The Guardian wp:paragraph