Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats on Reviving Voting Map

The US Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch bid by Virginia Democrats to revive a voter-approved map that was designed to flip four Republican-held US House seats in the November election.

Without any public dissents, the high court left in force a Virginia Supreme Court decision that said the map was adopted in violation of the state constitution. The ruling dealt a blow to Democratic hopes of countering Republican redistricting in other states ahead of this year’s midterms.

The nation’s highest court gave no explanation, rejecting the Democrats’ request in a one-sentence order.

The rebuff adds to a flurry of recent Supreme Court decisions that have put Democrats at a sudden disadvantage in this year’s redistricting wars. The high court’s April 29 decision weakening the Voting Rights Act spurred a new round of Republican map-drawing, with southern states moving to carve up majority-Black districts represented by Democrats. The court then followed up with procedural orders that jump-started those efforts in Louisiana and Alabama.

The Virginia Supreme Court’s reasoning limited the arguments Democrats could wage on appeal because the US Supreme Court generally doesn’t second-guess state judges in their interpretation of their own laws. The 4-3 decision said Virginia didn’t comply with a state constitutional requirement that the legislature vote twice on amendments to that charter, with a state general election taking place in between.

Virginia officials including Attorney General Jay Jones and House Speaker Don Scott told the Supreme Court that the state court’s analysis relied on a misinterpretation of federal election law. They also invoked a 2023 US Supreme Court ruling that said the justices in unusual circumstances could scrutinize state court decisions that affect federal elections.

Even if the Supreme Court had intervened, it wasn’t clear Virginia could have used the new map at this point anyway. Virginia Republicans told the high court the state still would have been bound by a ruling in a separate case blocking the new map. Republicans also said key deadlines in advance of the state’s Aug. 4 primary had already passed.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, said Thursday that “no matter the outcome in that case, we will be running our elections beginning next month with early voting on the current maps that we have.”

The Supreme Court in December cleared Texas to use its redrawn district lines and in February let California keep its new Democratic-friendly map. Those disputes involved legal questions distinct from those in the Virginia fight.

Virginia’s current congressional delegation features six Democrats and five Republicans. Under the proposed map, Republicans were favored to win in only one district.

The case is Scott v. McDougle, 25a1240.

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