Virginia Supreme Court weighs bid to throw out gerrymandered House map

The Virginia Supreme Court Monday heard from opponents of the state’s new gerrymandered House district map, who argued the legislature violated the state constitution when it redrew the lines to favor Democrats.

The case is one of five lawsuits challenging a state constitutional amendment, narrowly approved by Virginia voters last week, which would give Democrats likely control of 10 U.S. House seats. The new map would create just one Virginia district likely to elect a Republican.

The current split is 6-5 in favor of Democrats. 

“This proposed amendment is invalid for several reasons, any one of which is sufficient to invalidate the proposed amendment and require invalidation of the vote,” Thomas R. McCarthy, a lawyer for Republican opponents of the map, argued before the seven-member panel.  

Voters approved the skewed map in a referendum last week by a margin of 51.5% to 48.5% following one of the most expensive campaigns in state history. Democrats significantly outspent the GOP in advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. 

But the state Supreme Court judges aren’t weighing the voters’ narrow approval or outsized spending by Democrats in the case argued Monday.

Instead, the justices will decide whether to side with opponents who said the Democrat-led Virginia General Assembly violated the state’s constitution when it convened a special session  to redraw the map. Lawmakers authorized the special session by simple majority vote, rather than a two-thirds vote typically required for a special session. 

The Supreme Court also heard the argument that the General Assembly violated the constitution by failing to adhere to a 90-day waiting period before commencing the special election to approve the new map, and jilted voters by convening the special session last October, after early voting began in the 2025 election to pick new delegates for the legislature. 

The unlawful timing denied voters the knowledge that the delegate they voted for would move to gerrymander the state’s congressional district lines, Mr. McCarthy argued.  

“None of these voters had any idea this was coming,” Mr. McCarthy told the justices. “And that’s not how the process is supposed to work.”

Arguing on behalf of state Democrats, Matthew A. Seligman said the Supreme Court has no authority to enforce alleged violations of the General Assembly’s legislative rules and that the legislature is authorized to change rules with a majority vote. Mr. Seligman also argued the 90-day rule was followed because the votes were not counted until Election Day.

Justice Stephen McCullough said Mr. Seligman’s argument that the legislature can set its own rules is “compelling,” but questioned the position of Democrats that it was legal to bring up a redistricting amendment during the ongoing special session, called by then-Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin to address budget matters.  

“The more tricky, and in my mind, unprecedented aspect of that question, the idea of a sort of perpetual special session when the Constitution envisions a citizen legislature that’s part time, that meets at prescribed time periods,” Justice McCullough said. “And we’re writing on a blank canvas on that question.”

Other court cases challenging Virginia’s gerrymandered map are expected to wind their way to the state Supreme Court ahead of November. 

On Sunday, the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond denied a request for an injunction to block implementation of the new map based on arguments that the districts do not comply with compactness rules. 

On Wednesday, less than a day after the referendum results were tallied, Tazewell County Circuit Court ruled in a separate case that the referendum violated the Virginia constitution. 

Judge Jack Hurley blocked certification of the election results and denied a motion for the new lines to be implemented while Democrats appeal the decision. 

Judge Hurley cited several violations, among them that “ballot language proposed…submits to the voters a flagrantly misleading question…and did not accurately describe” the gerrymandered map proposed by the Virginia General Assembly.

The ballot question asked voters to allow the General Assembly to temporarily redraw new congressional districts “to restore fairness in the upcoming elections.” 

The amendment would return Virginia to the standard redistricting process every decade after the 2030 census.

Monday’s Supreme Court argument against the map was made on behalf of the Republican National Committee and the House GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee.

RNC Chairman Joe Gruters on Monday called Virginia’s gerrymandered map “a blatant attempt to rig the system and lock in political power.”

But the state’s mid-century redistricting follows several other states, both Republican and Democrat, scrambling to redraw lines to gain advantage in the 2026 midterms. 

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday unveiled a proposed map that would likely give the GOP four additional House seats from the Sunshine State.