Virginia Supreme Court strikes down voter-approved partisan redistricting amendment

The Supreme Court docket of Virginia on Friday struck down a voter-approved constitutional modification authorizing partisan gerrymandering of the state’s congressional districts, ruling 4-3 that the legislature violated procedural necessities when proposing the change.

In a majority opinion authored by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, the court docket famous that the Basic Meeting’s October 31, 2025 vote to advance the modification got here after early voting within the intervening Home of Delegates election had already begun, violating Article XII, Part 1 of the Virginia Structure. That provision requires a “basic election” between the legislature’s two required votes on a proposed modification.

By the point lawmakers acted, roughly 1.3 million Virginians—about 40 p.c of all 2025 voters—had already solid ballots. The court docket rejected the Commonwealth’s competition that “election” refers solely to Election Day, holding that the time period encompasses “the mixed actions of voters casting ballots and officers of election receiving these votes.”

The modification, narrowly accredited by voters final month, would have quickly suspended Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting fee and approved lawmakers to redraw congressional maps mid-decade. A proposed alternative map would have shifted Virginia’s 11-member Home delegation from a 6-5 break up to a projected 10-1 benefit. The 2021 court-ordered maps will stay in place for the November 2026 congressional elections.

Chief Justice Powell, joined by Justices Mann and Fulton, dissented, arguing the bulk’s expansive definition of “election” conflicts with each Virginia statutes and federal regulation, which deal with elections as single-day occasions.

The choice lands amid an escalating mid-decade redistricting battle. Virginia Democrats had superior the modification as a counter to Republican-led mid-decade gerrymandering in states like Florida, the place Governor Ron DeSantis not too long ago unveiled a map drawing 4 extra GOP-friendly seats following the Supreme Court docket’s Callais ruling weakening the Voting Rights Act.