Redistricting Betrayal in Virginia
Five years ago, two-thirds of Virginia voters passed a referendum that ostensibly eliminated partisan gerrymandering from the congressional redistricting process that follows each decennial census. This amended the commonwealth’s constitution such that redistricting would thence forth be carried out by the Virginia Redistricting Commission (VRC) rather than state politicians burdened by conflicts of interest. This bill of goods was sold to the Old Dominion’s voters as “election reform” by a very expensive public relations campaign run by various Democrat-affiliated activist groups. It was obvious that the VRC would be jettisoned when it no longer served Democrat interests.
Sure enough, the moment the Democrats gained a governing trifecta they set about neutralizing the VRC. Just days before the 2025 general election, they passed a resolution whereby the commonwealth’s constitution would be amended again to allow a mid-decade redraw by the legislature. They obviously intended to radically gerrymander the districts, ignored various procedural rules, state laws, and its constitution. Consequently, Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley enjoined the scheme. The Democrats appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court, which ignored all the irregularities and lifted the injunction on Friday. This is how Virginia’s former Attorney General, Jason Miyares, described the situation in the Wall Street Journal:
Defenders of the new amendment passed in January argue that the Virginia redistricting dispute is merely an extension of national political battles dating back years, including those during the Trump presidency. That argument misses the point. Whatever one’s views of national politics, Virginia voters have spoken clearly by amending the constitution to remove redistricting from partisan control. That constitutional decision — not any national political reason — governs what may lawfully occur in Virginia today … Yet legislative Democrats are attempting to do precisely the opposite of what Virginians wanted: drawing congressional maps behind closed doors.
Before the Democrats began meddling with the district map, the partisan make up of Virginia’s congressional delegation was relatively balanced, with 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans. The new map is an abomination. The Old Dominion will end up with 10 Democrats in the House of Representatives and a single Republican — if it survives the ongoing litigation. This brings us to one of the weirdest features of this already bizarre ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court. Friday’s ruling didn’t touch on the merits of the case. All it did was lift the injunction. The deadline for reply briefs is April 23, two days after the voters have been asked to go to the polls in order to reverse their 2020 decision to end partisan gerrymandering and create the VRC.
I wouldn’t dream of leaving any of my grandchildren all alone with Virginia Gov. Spanberger, much less the psychopath who masquerades as her Attorney General.
As Breccan F. Thies points out in the Federalist, “There appears to be three potential outcomes: The referendum fails and the case would likely not be heard; the referendum is approved and the court agrees with Democrats, allowing the gerrymander; the referendum is approved and the court agrees with Republicans, throwing it out.” This third contingency would result in chaos. If the referendum is approved by the voters and the court retroactively rules that the special election wasn’t legitimate after all, the Democrats will go nuts. They will inevitably denounce the Virginia Supreme Court as MAGA stooges. In fact, its seven justices are nominally nonpartisan. Four tend to lean Republican and three lean Democrat:
Virginia is one of only two states where the legislature elects Supreme Court justices. Because the state has had divided control for much of the past quarter century, the balance of the court’s justices were appointed by bipartisan compromise. The court’s current seven members include one justice who was elected when Democrats had sole control of the General Assembly, three when Republicans controlled both chambers and three when control of the legislature was split … Political and legal experts in Virginia agree the state Supreme Court is not overtly ideological, with many describing it as “small-c conservative,” leaning heavily on tradition and precedent.
If these justices truly rely on “tradition and precedent,” it’s hard to see how they can rule in favor of Gov. Abigail Spanberger and her accomplices in the General Assembly. Traditionally, the legislature controlled the redistricting process that follows each decennial census. Then, in 2020, the voters were swindled into creating the VRC in order to eliminate partisan gerrymandering. Now, the voters are expected to answer this question on April 21: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
I spent the first 38 years of my life in Virginia. In those days, statewide elections were almost always between moderate Republicans and Democrats. There was, of course, some political skulduggery. Yet it was so conventional that no one much cared. That was before the invasion of the bureaucratic property snatchers and the grotesque creatures who lead the “teacher’s” unions. Now, the Old Dominion has become a pit of political vipers. I wouldn’t dream of leaving any of my grandchildren all alone with Virginia Gov. Spanberger, much less the psychopath who masquerades as her Attorney General. If the Virginia Supreme Court does the right thing in this gerrymandering case, I’ll be surprised and relieved. Yet I would not bet on it.
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