Judge Just Stopped Virginia Redistricting

Less than 24 hours after one of the most gerrymandered redistricting maps ever narrowly passed in a ballot measure fraught with legal issues, Virginia Judge Jack Hurley blocked the state from using the new congressional map.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones plans to appeal the ruling IMMEDIATELY, and the Virginia state Supreme Court could soon get involved. Will the gerrymandering issue be resolved before the midterms – and if not, then what?

As reported by CBS News:

A state court judge on Wednesday blocked Virginia from moving forward with a redistricting effort that passed in a referendum a day earlier, a roadblock in Democrats’ efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps and tilt as many as four House districts away from the GOP. 

The order from Judge Jack Hurley of Tazewell County Circuit Court declares all votes for and against Tuesday’s referendum “ineffective,” and bars state officials from certifying the results or taking any actions to put the new maps passed by state lawmakers into effect. 

In a brief order, Hurley found that the referendum violated several clauses of the state constitution, arguing it skirted a 90-day public notice requirement and calling the question that was presented to voters “flagrantly misleading.”

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, said he will immediately appeal the ruling.

“Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote,” Jones wrote in a statement on X. “We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court.”

The Republican National Committee, one of several GOP groups that sued over the referendum, called the ruling “a major victory for Virginians.”

“Democrats attempted to force an unconstitutional scheme to tilt congressional maps in their favor, but the court recognized it for what it is — a blatant power grab,” RNC Chair Joe Gruters said in a statement. . . .

The new maps would make 10 of Virginia’s 11 House seats Democratic-leaning, largely by dividing up the deep-blue D.C. suburbs in Northern Virginia into several districts. The state’s House delegation is currently made up of six Democrats and five Republicans.

The new map is heavily imbalanced, likely handing future elections to the Democrats. But now a circuit court judge in western Virginia has blocked the certification, calling it invalid, meaning, at least for the moment, that they cannot move forward with the redistricting. They cannot use the new map that has been put forward by the House of Delegates and the Virginia State Senate. The court cited a litany of invalidating reasons, including violations of the Virginia Constitution, as well as state code.

The judge didn’t do this because he’s siding with Republicans. He’s simply respecting the law. The order violates the state constitution and Virginia state law and, therefore, should not be allowed to move forward as written. And the ramifications of this are imminent, as elections will be happening in just a few months.

The improper redistricting of Virginia would change the political landscape of the state – which was clearly the idea. It appears the Left doesn’t even want a competition. Virginia has historically been a “purple state,” typically leaning toward a 6-5 split in favor of Democrats when it comes to congressional delegation. But this new map would change that split to an overwhelming 10-1 Democrat advantage,

And obviously, this affects much more than just the state of Virginia. Handing historically Republican seats to the Left would tip the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives, and that affects all of us.

We were joined by former Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli, and I asked him how quickly this will move through the court system:

Very fast. This is a pure state constitutional issue. . . . It’s all decided under the Virginia state constitution. They are very sensitive to the fact that there’s an election, and unfortunately, the last time the Democrats had three-way control, House, Senate, and governor, they gave us these 45-day elections. Now, amusingly, they may get hoisted on that little petard here in this case, but it also means that [for] the August primaries – voting starts in early July. Which means that campaigning and candidate qualification have to happen before that, with some degree of comfort before that, so the courts know they’re in a hurry.

We saw the judge in Tazewell rush on the day after the referendum to get his order in place. The Virginia Supreme Court is moving with as much speed as I [can] ever remember seeing it move. They have a briefing today. They have oral argument on Monday on the two constitutional challenges against – state constitutional challenges that are already in front of the court. Both of them [are] very strong challenges, and the yes side is going to have a very difficult time holding on to this win. . . . If I were a betting man, I would bet on this getting invalidated in the Virginia Supreme Court, and I would take odds to do it. The brazenness of the violations is such that this could be a 7-0 ruling. The court is split 4-3 Republican, Democrat, but it doesn’t act as a particularly political court.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of this circuit court blocking the certification of the overwhelmingly lopsided congressional district map in Virginia, including more with former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Watch the full broadcast below: