Richmond Throws It Out — The Supreme Court of Virginia Strikes the Democratic-Drawn Congressional Map Four-to-Three at Forty-Two Minutes Past Four on Friday Afternoon, Drops Four GOP-Held Seats Out of the Democrats’ Midterm Path and Lifts Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina Back Into the Frame the National Redistricting Flux Has Held Open Since March
The Supreme Court of Virginia, in a four-to-three opinion handed down at forty-two minutes past four on Friday afternoon, blocked the Democratic-drawn congressional map that the General Assembly passed in April from taking effect for the November midterms. The opinion, written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey for a four-justice majority, holds that the constitutional amendment authorising the new map was not put on the ballot under the procedure the Virginia Constitution prescribes for amendments of that kind, and rules that the map of November 2021, drawn by the redistricting commission, remains in force. The decision strips four GOP-held House seats out of the Democrats’ targeted midterm path, hands House Republicans the cleanest single legal win of the second-term redistricting flux, and lifts Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina back into the national frame for late spring and early summer.
The Four-to-Three Opinion
The opinion was handed down on the docket at 16:42 Eastern time on Friday afternoon, on the bench of Chief Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn and Justices D. Arthur Kelsey, Stephen R. McCullough, Teresa M. Chafin, Cleo E. Powell, William C. Mims and Junius P. Fulton III. The four-justice majority — Kelsey for the court, McCullough, Mims and Fulton III concurring — held that the Virginia Constitution’s Article XII, on the amendment procedure, requires the General Assembly to pass an amendment in two consecutive sessions before submitting it to the people, and that the April amendment did not satisfy the second-session requirement. The three-justice dissent, written by the Chief Justice for himself, Justice Powell and Justice Chafin, held that the second-session requirement had been satisfied by the December 2025 special session and that the majority had read the procedure too narrowly. The opinion was, on the testimony of two clerks of the court, the most carefully briefed single decision the court has handed down in the calendar year.
The Four Targeted Seats
The four GOP-held House seats the Democratic-drawn map was meant to put in play — the second, the seventh, the fifth and the first, on the numbering of the April map — revert, on the operative paragraph of the opinion, to the boundaries of November 2021. The four districts return to their existing Republican-leaning composition. The Democratic candidates who filed for the new districts in March, on the testimony of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Friday evening, will refile against the existing districts. The DCCC, on the brief statement issued at five Eastern time, called the decision “a procedural ruling that does not change the political reality of November.” The Republican National Committee, on a separate statement at five-fifteen, called the decision “the cleanest legal win of the redistricting decade.”
The Tennessee Map
The Tennessee map, on the timetable the General Assembly closed on Friday morning at fourteen minutes past two Central time on the seventy-three-to-twenty-six floor vote that split Shelby County three ways, lifts back into the national frame on Saturday morning. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund will file in the Western District of Tennessee on Monday morning, on the testimony of two of its lawyers in a Friday-evening conference call. The Department of Justice, on the line the Attorney General gave the Friday-evening pool spray, called the Tennessee map “within the lawful discretion of the General Assembly.” The Republican congressional delegation, on a brief statement issued at quarter to seven Friday evening, welcomed the General Assembly’s vote. The Memphis Ninth District congressman, Steve Cohen, on a written statement at sixteen minutes to five Central time, called the Shelby County three-way split “a deliberate, calculated, and historically resonant act of voter erasure.”
Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina
The Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina maps, on the testimony of three state-house Republican leaders canvassed on Saturday morning, will move on a calendar that runs through the third week of June. The Alabama General Assembly, on the announcement issued from the Speaker’s office on Saturday morning at half past nine Central time, will hold a special session beginning the second Monday of June. The Louisiana Legislature, on a parallel announcement at twenty past ten, will return for a five-day special session beginning the third Tuesday of June. The South Carolina General Assembly, which is in session through the third week of May, will mark up its map in committee on the Wednesday after the Memorial Day recess. The four states together, on the count three House Republican leaders confirmed on Saturday morning, raise the second-term redistricting net to seven or eight new GOP-leaning seats, against the four Democratic-targeted seats Richmond closed last night.
The Senate Reaction
The Senate reaction to the Richmond ruling, on the testimony of two Republican leadership aides, will run through Tuesday afternoon. The Majority Leader, John Thune, on the brief statement issued at half past five Friday evening, welcomed the decision and named the redistricting flux “a state matter Washington should not, and will not, intrude on.” The Minority Leader, Charles Schumer, on a separate statement at six fifteen, called the decision “a four-to-three reversal of the will of the Virginia voters.” Senator Tim Kaine, the Virginia Democrat who chaired the state party in the early 2010s, used the word “disappointed” in the broadcast round at half past seven and committed to filing an amicus brief in the Tennessee case on Tuesday.
What the Ruling Has Decided
What the Richmond ruling has decided is that the Democratic path to four targeted Virginia seats is closed and that the Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina maps move on a Republican-friendly calendar through June. What the ruling has not decided is whether the Department of Justice clears the southern maps under the Voting Rights Act on the timetable the Tennessee NAACP Legal Defense Fund filing will set, or whether the Senate war-powers fight on Tuesday folds the redistricting question into the Iran-war Phase Two discussion the Special Envoy is opening in Geneva on Sunday afternoon. The honest verdict, on the evidence of the four-to-three opinion and the four southern timetables, is that the redistricting flux that opened in March has tilted, on a single Friday-afternoon ruling, back toward the South.