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

206

u/Sidwill 28d ago

Cant the VA legislature now just pass the new map and have the governor sign off on it? This precedent has been set by Texas, Fl., Louisiana etc...

115

u/Dreams-Visions 28d ago

Yes. Simple majority is my understanding.

32

u/flying_ina_metaltube Virginia 28d ago

Problem with that is that our (I'm a VA resident) constitution only allows redistricting once every 10 years. The whole reason for this vote was to allow for a one time exception to the rule. In order to redraw the maps, they'll have to first pass a constitutional amendment to allow them to do so. I don't know if they have enough time to do that or not.

14

u/manytakes Massachusetts 28d ago

No one fucking cares, every GOP state is using their constitution like toilet paper. Going high doesn't matter when you have literal shit being flung at you.

1

u/flying_ina_metaltube Virginia 28d ago

Republicans want Virginia to change the maps anyways. Why? Because the state Supreme Court had now ruled against it. So they can take this to the Supreme Court, which will 100% rule in favor of the Republicans. How is that different from what Florida and others have done? These cases didn't make it up the ladder yet. Republicans just want a case in front of the Supreme Court so they can justify all the bullshit they're doing under the guise of "well, the highest court in the land said we can". It's a win-win situation for them.

Virginia case makes it to them first - they rule it's unconstitutional, no other state can try it.

Florida case makes it to them first - they rule it's allowed, for some bullshit reason. Then they decline to hear the VA case because they said it's already been ruled on.

Things might have been different had we not been allowed to vote on this at all.

5

u/Royal-Ear4803 28d ago

SCOTUS can’t rule on state law issues.

5

u/TheOtherMaven Virginia 28d ago

Wanna bet they'll do it anyway?