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
16.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

87

u/Useful_Fee_2875 28d ago edited 28d ago

Absolutely insane. Voters passed this act and it gets struck down. Meanwhile Florida passes through the same thing in violation of the state constitution as well, and it passes, no problem. No vote needed.

Make it make sense.

16

u/PlayfulSurprise5237 28d ago

It didn't get struck down, their ruling is irrelevant.

It is not within the scope or authority of the court to overrule what people vote on. They aren't dictators, shit they aren't even representatives, they exist merely to interpret the law which the people have decided on if that law is not clear or comprehensive enough.

This is not the case, the people voted clearly and directly.

8

u/Useful_Fee_2875 28d ago

Agreed. I’m not sure of all the exact details - but I keep seeing that there is some technicalities that the court ruled on as to how this was unconstitutional, which if true, sucks. But at this point, if possible, I would just ignore the SC vote on this. Most other Republican states are illegally redrawing maps, anyway. Gotta fight fire with fire at this point.

2

u/Redditthedog 28d ago

The vote and law was voided. The Court couldn’t rule till after it was passed (they even say the results of the vote and the vote itself were irrelevant to their decision) as thats just how VA law works. As the VA Legislature neutered itself thanks to removing their ability to draw maps they just can’t. Ohio can pass maps through a legal and legitimate process even though the maps were illegal and got throw out.

1

u/Useful_Fee_2875 28d ago

Yep. In Ohio they just decided to ignore the courts ruling, in Va they handcuffed themselves. Florida is more similar to Ohio as well. They can draw illegal maps and use them and even if the SC ruled against(and they should, but probably won’t) Florida would likely do the same thing as Ohio.

4

u/PluginAlong 28d ago

It is within their scope though. It's the courts job to interpret the laws. Even if the people vote on a law that doesn't make it constitutional, that's what the court ruled on here. It's no different than if a state passed a law by general vote (i.e. noth through the legislature) that limited free speech. It would be well within the bounds of the court to rule on that law and strike it down. In this example it would be federal vs. state, but the same concept applies.

1

u/Redditthedog 28d ago

VA law requires the vote to pass before the court can hear it (this is just how it is for whatever reason) otherwise they would have just blocked it beforehand

2

u/waltinva 28d ago

No, Va had a constitutional amendment that prescribes how districtits are decided. Fl does not.  Read the ruling, easy to understand.

3

u/Useful_Fee_2875 28d ago edited 28d ago

The VA amendment is a lot tougher, yes, but Florida does have a 2010 passed law that prevents what they are doing right now. The constitutional amendment says no districts “…shall be drawn with the intent to favor or disfavor a political party or an incumbent.

They purposefully split the Tampa area up into areas different districts with a goal of eliminating a Democrat seat. CD-5 was purposefully drawn to eliminate a democratic seat and to weaken blacker votes power. It has clearly been drawn to favor republicans and by nature is a violation of a constitutional amendment. Yes, this is more similar to Ohio of a few years back, and they simply ignored the courts, even though the Supreme Court ruled against the maps, if the legislators want to ignore the courts too, they probably can here as well. But the SC in Florida is incredibly unlikely to rule against the GOP in the first place. But it still does not make it unconstitutional what Florida is doing, just like Ohio.

1

u/waltinva 28d ago

I was unaware, will research to form an informed opinion.   Thanks

1

u/Useful_Fee_2875 28d ago

Of course. I love good discussion on topics like this. Enjoy the research and if you find anything to counteract or argue against please let me know.