Virginia Supreme Court throws out Democrats’ redistricting referendum

On Friday the Supreme Court of Virginia, or SCOVA, threw out a redistricting referendum orchestrated by Democrats in an attempt to flip four U.S. House seats. The court voted 4-3 against the amendment, ruling that the legislative process employed to advance the proposal violated the Constitution of Virginia.

SCOVA affirmed a lower court’s findings that Virginia’s constitutional intervening election requirements were violated when the redistricting amendment passed the legislature on Oct. 31, 2025, just days before the Nov. 4 general election. The decision comes after the commonwealth approved the amendment last month with a vote of 51.7% to 48.3%. In a statement following the ruling, Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., argued that if SCOVA had legitimate concerns about the referendum, the time to stop it would have been before millions of Virginians cast their ballots.

Could Virginia redistrict again? Attorney General Jay Jones quickly published a statement emphasizing his team's intent to evaluate every legal pathway forward, but in a Friday press briefing, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli affirmed that the case is over. He said that if a new map is to be created, the General Assembly will have to go back to the drawing board and pass another amendment—a process that could not be completed until after the 2028 primaries. For the 2026 midterm elections, Virginians will have the same 6-5 Democrat leaning congressional map that existed in 2024, he said.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Virginia’s gerrymandered “lobster distract” and the months-long redistricting saga that led up to this ruling.