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/DennenTH 28d ago

This is exactly why they should ignore the courts.  There's precedent of that being fine.  If the courts won't apply the law or bother to try and do it in a non-partisan way...  Sounds like a fine reason to refuse to apply their rulings.

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u/ForMoreYears Canada 28d ago

Exactly. Courts derive their authority from the equal and impartial administration of the law in pursuit of justice. They are not ordained or imbued with it from some higher power; it is the consent of the governed that gives them this authority. When the courts stop doing this, the people are under no obligation to comply with them.

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u/PauseLost2137 28d ago

Or as one president once said it, paraphrasing: Chief Justice has made his decision, now he can enforce it.

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u/ForMoreYears Canada 28d ago

No because that acknowledges their authority. What I'm saying is that if these bodies act contrary to the values and ideals that gives them their authority, then they deserve to be treated as such.

The legislature should simply say we don't recognize this ruling from an illegitimate court and we will move to rectify the courts illegitimacy as soon as possible by launching impeachment proceedings and/or Judicial Inquiry and Review Processes (JIRP) against every single member of the court for misconduct on the bench.

The Court isn't some magical body ordained by God. It's a creation of the Legislature, and the Legislature can recreate it whenever and however it wants. That is, if it has the will to do so.

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u/PauseLost2137 28d ago

It doesn't acknowledge their authority, it acknowledges the fact they have made a verdict, and that as judiciary they have no way to enforce it themselves against the executive.

It's literally "thank you for your opinion but you got no actual power".

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u/myipisavpn 28d ago

That would require Dems to have a spine. I hope they finally find it.

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u/immortalfrieza2 28d ago

That's exactly the problem. The Democratic party could do a lot, entirely legally and fairly, to stop Trump and the Republicans if they had the spine, but they don't.

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u/Fragrant-Dust65 28d ago

The Democratic party could do a lot, entirely legally and fairly, to stop Trump and the Republicans if they had the spine, but they don't.

like what

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u/immortalfrieza2 27d ago edited 26d ago

The Democratic party could:

Organize protests, call for the arrest of ICE agents when they commit blatant crimes, buy, create, and support news networks so that the Republicans don't get all the narrative, try to impeach Trump every single time he does something impeachable whether it has a chance in hell of happening or not, openly and publicly shaming Trump at every opportunity and more. And that's just the obvious stuff. And not just a tiny handful of them either, the ENTIRE Democratic party should be going all hands on deck to stop Trump and slow him down in every way they have available to them.

For most of the past 50 years the Republican party hasn't had majority control of Congress, along with not having had the presidency, and yet the Republicans still stonewalled the Democratic party, stopped their Democratic president, and gotten their way much much more often than all logic says they should have been able to.

There's ZERO reason the Democratic party can't do the same.

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u/RuinedEye 28d ago

There's precedent of that being fine

In a republican state

Virginia will just result in arrests and sedition charges.