In a significant turn of events, a group of Republican legislators, alongside an election official and two registered voters, have filed with the U.S. Supreme Court urging the justices to uphold the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision that nullified a constitutional amendment. This amendment would have allowed the Virginia General Assembly to draft a new congressional map. The legislators characterized the request to overturn the state court’s decision as “extraordinary,” emphasizing that the case centers around “state courts applying state law to hold state actors accountable.”
This filing, detailed in a 15-page document, was submitted just days after Virginia’s Attorney General Jay Jones, supported by other Democrats, requested the High Court to halt the ruling. They hope to employ the new map in the 2026 elections, a map anticipated to favor Democrats strongly.
The newly adopted map, set in motion by the General Assembly in February, forms part of broader nationwide efforts to advantage specific political parties within the U.S. House of Representatives. Voter approval for the related constitutional amendment was secured in a statewide vote in April, passing by a margin of about three percentage points, as tracked by the Center for Politics.
However, the Virginia Supreme Court, in a divided ruling issued on May 8, invalidated the amendment. The court reasoned the General Assembly had not adhered to the state constitutional requirements for amending processes, which necessitate legislative approval across two sessions separated by an election. By the time of the initial legislative passage, over 1.3 million ballots had already been cast, revealing procedural discrepancies.
Opposing the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision, Jones and the Democratic faction posited before the U.S. Supreme Court that two critical federal law issues were at stake. Their argument spotlighted the interpretation of the term “election” under federal law and alleged the state court had exceeded judicial review limits, thereby challenging the democratic result closely preceding the 2026 midterm preparations.
On the other hand, Republican legislators in their response insisted that intervention was now impractical, mainly since Jay Jones had identified May 12 as a critical deadline for executing election protocols. Additionally, Virginia’s Governor Abigail Spanberger confirmed that the 2026 map would not be utilized in the upcoming elections.
The Republican filing argued further against adjudicating federal claims at the SCOTUS level, stating that these arguments were not previously raised at the state court level. They maintained, “The Virginia Supreme Court didn’t decide any. This Court shouldn’t consider them for the first time,” thus urging the justices to leave the state ruling untouched.
For more insight on this legal development, consider the detailed explanation on SCOTUSblog.