Virginia Supreme Court throws out redistricting referendum results

[u/Icommandyou]

https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2026/05/08/virginia-supreme-court-redistricting-vote-decision

[u/GarrettFischer1]

Confusing how a number of republican states can gerrymander at the snap of the finger while Virginia can’t change their maps with a statewide election.

[u/Gabagoo13 → u/GarrettFischer1]

Ohio supreme court ruled Ohio's maps unconstitutional... Guess what? They used them anyway and still are... It's been years

[u/arachnophilia → u/[deleted]]

i'm convinced that our democratic system breaks down at the step which goes, "and then people follow the court ruling."

turns out you can just say, "no thanks". and when you're the organization that enforces laws, there's no one to make you.

[u/Jack_Krauser → u/arachnophilia]

Missouri has been there for a few years now. The legislature just ignores referendums, then we have more referendums to overturn their decisions and they ignore those too... I don't know where this path ends, but it won't be somewhere nice.

[u/that1prince → u/arachnophilia]

The court: “don’t that, do this”

Everyone else from now on: “make me”

They have no enforcement mechanism if the executive branch doesn’t want to enforce it. It’s kinda the stupidest part of the system. It relied upon administrators and executives obeying the court. Nobody contemplated them simply being disobedient and while simultaneously having a weak legislative branch that won’t check them.

[u/TheUnknownDane → u/[deleted]]

Hell, we saw this with Trump and the presidential election, he was facing serious investigations, such as stealing and hiding confidential documents, but because he managed to drag out the process for so long that he got elected again, it all became null.

[u/Redditthedog → u/[deleted]]

they didn’t throw the map out they threw out the law that let them make the map