Virginia voted last month in favor of a referendum to adopt a gerrymandered congressional map that would all but guarantee that 10 out of the state’s 11 congressional seats go to Democrats in the upcoming midterm election.
Democrats — who blew over $60 million on this redistricting effort — were evidently premature in their celebrations.
‘Justice has been served.’
To the likely chagrin of former President Barack Obama, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, and other Democrats who championed the gerrymandering initiative, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Friday that “the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia.”
In its Friday ruling in Scott v. McDougle, the state’s high court echoed the conclusions previously drawn by Jack Hurley Jr., the Tazewell County Circuit judge who initially heard the legal challenge advanced by Virginia state Sen. Ryan McDougle (R) and others.
The Virginia Supreme Court noted that the result of the vote was immaterial with regard to the analytics of its “judicial review of the constitutionality of the pre-election constitutional-amendment process” and underscored that the “Commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement in Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia.”
This violation, according to the court, “irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.”
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Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
As a result of the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling, the 2021-era congressional maps will serve as the governing maps for the upcoming midterm elections.
The Virginia GOP said in response to the ruling, “Today, the Supreme Court of Virginia correctly ruled that Democrats violated the Virginia Constitution in ramming through their partisan gerrymandering power grab. Democrats thought that following the rules was optional. They were wrong. This process was corrupt from the very beginning, and now the court has corrected this injustice.”
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), one of the most outspoken critics of the Democratic gerrymandering campaign, stated, “Justice has been served.”
“Abigail Spanberger and Democrats in Richmond knowingly violated our constitution to disenfranchise millions of Virginians,” continued Youngkin. “The Constitution prevailed, and Virginians will never forget this unlawful attempt to rob them of their voice in Congress.”
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