US Supreme Court Turns Down Virginia Gerrymander

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Virginia to honor gerrymandered districts that favor Democrats.

This comes a week after the state’s high court issued a rebuke to the redistricting effort that would have created a map with a 10-1 party advantage. Democrats made an immediate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the map had been left in place, Democrats would have likely picked up an additional four seats in the House of Representatives.

Virginia currently has an independent redistricting committee that drew a congressional map with a Democrat advantage of 6-5. However, voters in April approved a change to the state constitution to allow the partisan redistricting in a narrow referendum last month. The state’s high court determined the state legislature violated the Virginia Constitution in bypassing normal procedures to pass a constitutional amendment.

The one-sentence, unsigned decision said, “The application for stay presented to The Chief Justice and
by him referred to the Court is denied.” There was no dissent.

Generally, the high court has opted to stay out of redistricting cases, as a state political matter. While the court did strike down a Louisiana map that it determined was drawn based strictly on racial lines, it also declined to hear gerrymandering cases coming out of Texas and California.

Virginia Democrats tried to convince justices that the state high court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent, holding that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself, the Associated Press reported.

Earlier this week, Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021, after the 2020 Census.