Virginia Redistricting Returns to State Court After Voters Back Temporary Constitutional Change

After successfully passing a new state constitutional amendment in a statewide election on Tuesday to redraw their state’s congressional maps, Virginia Democrats will now be heading back to state court. Earlier this year, a county circuit court ruled that the Democratic-led legislature violated the state constitution and state law, leading the state supreme court to overrule the lower court to say that a substantive opinion on the matter should be punted until after the statewide vote, should it pass. The tentative Virginia congressional maps would likely see Democrats pick up four additional House seats. If that outcome does materialize, Democrats would take ten of the state’s 11 congressional seats — one of the most aggressive gerrymanders in the country. On Tuesday, voters adopted the constitutional amendment to allow lawmakers to redraw those maps by a margin of about three points. Now, Republicans are headed back to court to try to block the new districts. Earlier this year, a judge in Tazewell County found that the Republicans suing to stop the statewide vote on the redistricting amendment had an “extraordinarily high likelihood of success” following a full legal process to block the maps. The judge ruled that the statewide vote would be blocked, pending additional litigation. The judge further cited “numerous violations” that state lawmakers committed in passing the constitutional amendment through the legislature, as well as the irreparable “harm” that two Republican members of Congress would face “by their districts changing at this juncture.”A few weeks later, the state supreme court stepped in, saying in its order that this was no “ordinary case.” “If the electorate approves the proposed amendment, we then must exercise our constitutional duty to review lower courts’ declaratory judgments before us on appeal and address … what equitable remedies, if any, are appropriate,” the court wrote. “It is the process, not the outcome, of this effort that we may ultimately have to address. Issuing an injunction to keep Virginians from the polls is not the proper way to make this decision.”In Virginia’s judicial nominating system, the governor plays no role. Instead, the general assembly receives nominations from its own members, with the legislature then deciding whether or not to confirm the new justice. Both the house of delegates and the state senate must vote to confirm that nomination. As of 2026, three of the seven justices of the court have been confirmed during total Republican control, one has been confirmed during total Democratic control, and three have been confirmed when the legislature was divided. The main issue at hand for the state courts is whether or not the legislature violated both the state constitution and state law which both outline how the constitutional amendment process works. In Virginia the legislature must pass a proposed constitutional amendment through both chambers during two consecutive legislative sessions. The amendment was first adopted by the house and senate last October, during a special session convened by then-Governor Glenn Youngkin to address budgetary issues. Because the proposed amendment was passed in October 2025 after early voting for last year’s general election had begun, Republicans argued that the passage was null and void because the election had already commenced. The state supreme court will now be charged with ruling on whether or not that first passage was legitimate. Lawyers representing the Republican National Committee and other GOP groups suing to block the maps did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when they plan to file additional legal briefs in the redistricting case.

Virginia Redistricting Returns to State Court After Voters Back Temporary Constitutional Change

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