Virginia's top court throws out Democratic-backed US House map

Ruling in favor of a Republican challenge, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected a Democratic-backed ballot measure approved by voters in April that reconfigured the state's U.S. House of Representatives districts for partisan advantage. The ruling ‌could bolster Republican hopes of keeping their majority in the U.S. House in the midterms.

Virginia's top court on Friday threw out a new ​electoral map that was crafted to flip four Republican-held U.S. congressional ‌seats ​to Democrats, handing President Donald Trump's party a victory ahead of the November midterm elections. Ruling in favor of a Republican challenge, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected a Democratic-backed ballot measure approved by voters in April that reconfigured the state's U.S. House of Representatives districts for partisan advantage.

The ruling ‌could bolster Republican hopes of keeping their majority in the U.S. House in the midterms. Democrats pursued the Virginia measure as part of a nationwide battle involving the redrawing of the boundaries of U.S. districts that the Republican president initiated last year. In its ruling, the Virginia court agreed with Republican claims that the state's Democratic-majority legislature did not follow proper procedure in approving the referendum before it was put to ‌the voters. A day after the referendum, a county judge blocked the state from certifying the results, calling the ballot language "flagrantly misleading."

The Virginia court's ruling adds to Republican momentum in the ‌redistricting fight. It came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, powered by its conservative majority, that eviscerated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, opening the door for Republican-led Southern states to dismantle Democratic-held majority-Black and majority-Latino districts. Black and Latino voters tend to support Democratic candidates. Already, Republican-controlled states such as Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee have taken steps toward drawing new maps in time for the November elections, even postponing party primary elections to give lawmakers time.

Trump ⁠last year pushed ​Texas Republicans to rip up their electoral map and ⁠draw new district lines targeting five Democratic U.S. House incumbents. After Texas did so, California Democrats reconfigured their state's districts, targeting five Republican incumbents. Other states have followed suit. Virginia voters approved the Democratic-backed map in an April 21 special election ⁠by a 51.7% to 48.3% margin, according to an Associated Press tally. The referendum was the final step in a complicated legislative maneuver to sidestep a constitutional amendment, passed by voters in 2020, that had put redistricting in ​the hands of a bipartisan commission.

If Virginia's map remains invalidated, Republicans could eventually end up with an advantage in as many as 10 House seats nationwide, pending the ⁠outcome of current Republican redistricting efforts in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee. Republicans can afford to lose only two net seats in November's elections to maintain control of the U.S. House.

The process of redrawing maps, known as redistricting, generally occurs once per decade ⁠to ​reflect population changes as measured by the national census conducted every 10 years. The ongoing and recently completed redistricting efforts by Republican- and Democratic-held state legislatures, on the other hand, have been motivated by a desire for partisan advantage. The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling only accelerated the fight. In addition to the states that are already seeking to reshape their maps immediately, other states have made ⁠clear they intend to pursue a maximally partisan approach to redistricting ahead of the 2028 election.

Under Virginia state law, two consecutive legislatures - with a state election in between - must approve a proposed constitutional ⁠amendment before it can be put to a ⁠vote. The Democratic legislative majority approved the amendment in October, days before the November state election. Democrats, who gained additional legislative seats in that vote, then passed the amendment for a second time in January and scheduled the referendum for April.

Republicans filed multiple lawsuits, claiming there was no intervening election ‌since early voting had already ‌started when the amendment was first passed and that lawmakers violated other procedural steps in advancing the measure. (Reporting ​by Joseph Ax; Editing by Will Dunham)