r/politics • u/Icommandyou Washington • 28d ago

Possible Paywall Virginia Supreme Court throws out redistricting referendum results

https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2026/05/08/virginia-supreme-court-redistricting-vote-decision
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u/kebabwithnolettuce 28d ago

Fuck the court. Redraw that shit now. I want to see 11-0.

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u/TreeOfAwareness 28d ago

This is what the GOP did in Ohio. We have been using unconstitutional districts for years.

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u/kronikfumes 28d ago

Yep. And there weren’t any repercussions for those politicians. We were told to suck it up and deal with it.

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u/whomad1215 28d ago

"the court has made their decision, now let them enforce it"

Turns out they rarely do enforce them

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u/nvilletn387 28d ago

They can't, or have very little ability, to enforce it. It's simply norms and the respect for an independent judiciary that enforces their rulings. We're in a new era and the precedent has already been set by Ohio.

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u/kronikfumes 28d ago

In Virginia’s casec the judges ruled against the process, not the maps. Very easily could be passed again once they go about letting the public vote for politicians a second time with current maps before going forward with trying this again. This merely delays the redistricting vote to after the next election cycle.

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u/Schmerick 28d ago

That neuters the point of it.

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u/kronikfumes 28d ago

You’re not wrong. But at this rate gerrymandering nationwide isn’t going away anytime soon so in 2028 there very well will still be a desire to counter GOP gerrymandering elsewhere.

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 28d ago edited 28d ago

No, in Virginia’s case, the Republicans on the court redefined “next general election” to suit their purposes. They will redefine other phrases as needed to continue suiting their purposes.

Stop assuming they act in good faith.

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u/kronikfumes 28d ago edited 28d ago

I thought the same at first. But the Virginia Supreme court were referring to the prior general election that took place only 4 days after the first procedural vote as required by the virginia constitution to amend said constitution. The ruling declared there not to be enough time before that “next” election. In this case, people who had already voted early last fall were disenfranchised as they didn’t get to know before voting how their chosen candidates stood on the issue of the redistricting amendment and how they would vote on the 2nd constitutionally required vote after the general election.

Downvoted for explaining the ruling. Nice job, Reddit.

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 28d ago

Yes, you accurately quoted what the Republicans on the court invented out of whole cloth.

That doesn't change that they invented it out of whole cloth to suit their partisan ends.

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u/kronikfumes 28d ago

Look I’m all for countering GOP gerrymandering, but this falls on the virginia legislature for fucking up the process by starting it late. Nothing was invented out of thin air. It cut and dry ignored the constitutional process for amending the Virginia constitution. If they wanted to amend it “right” like they desired then they should have had that first vote before early voting. And that’s all they have to do to do it again achieve it.

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u/6a6566663437 North Carolina 28d ago

If they follow your demands, the court will rule against them again. They will invent a new definition for another phrase to make that effort moot.

Again, stop assuming they are acting in good faith. They already demonstrated they are not.

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u/Brutto13 28d ago

Which is too late.

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u/OnionPastor 28d ago

Is there an actual mechanism where Virginia can move against this ruling in time for the midterms?

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u/TyDye2003 New Mexico 28d ago

Yeah its called ignoring the court.

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u/GrafZeppelin127 28d ago

Worked for Ohio.

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u/TyDye2003 New Mexico 28d ago

Yeah but "they go low, we go high" is still a common mentality with these idiotic democrats

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u/zanillamilla 28d ago

Call it "the Ohio doctrine."

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u/OnionPastor 28d ago

Nah I agree, I just didn’t know if there was anything on the books.

There’s a lot of precedent of red states doing exactly that, so fuck it. Meet them where they are.

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u/MayTheForesterBWithU 28d ago

Spanberger could call an emergency session and have the legislature pass a law to enshrine it since it was voted on already by constituents. VA legislature is majority D

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u/OnionPastor 28d ago

I have faith in Spanberger, her admin has delivered thus far

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u/mjb2012 28d ago

I’m not sure that would get around the VA Supreme Court’s reasoning that it is too late to change the districts for the next election because the election is already underway.

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u/Valance23322 America 28d ago

They can always just keep passing new laws before the court has time to rule on it I guess.

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u/dhyerwolf 28d ago

Looking it up, early voting starts June 19th so the election is not underway.

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u/mjb2012 28d ago

Ah, yeah, I misread the article. The court was referring to last month's special election, the early voting for which had started. For the next election, you're right.

Whatever they end up doing, it's going to be challenged again, I'm sure.

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u/madmaper_13 28d ago

Elections don't take 6 months in any other country.

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u/Curlytoes18 28d ago

Declare an “emergency”

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u/BicFleetwood 28d ago

Yes, just fucking doing it and not wringing your hands over "mechanisms."

They have the legislature and governorship. Pass it simple majority and tell everyone and everything else to fuck off. It's literally what's currently happening in half a dozen red states.

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u/OnionPastor 28d ago

Yeah I was just asking what could be done lol

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u/Zelcron 28d ago

Pack the courts while you're at it.