By Heather Michon, Editor
Weeks after Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment to redraw the state’s congressional maps, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the results.
In a 4-3 ruling issued Friday, May 8, the court found that the process used to place the amendment on the ballot violated the Constitution of Virginia.
The proposed amendment would have allowed lawmakers to conduct a mid-decade congressional redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections.
Writing for the majority, Justice D. Arthur Kelsey said the amendment process failed to meet constitutional requirements mandating approval by two separately elected sessions of the General Assembly, with a general election for the House of Delegates occurring between the two votes.
The court found that the first legislative approval came on Oct. 31, 2025, just days before the Nov. 4 election.
However, early voting had already begun in mid-September, with more than 1 million ballots already cast.
The majority concluded the timeline violated the constitutional intent of allowing voters to weigh in through a House of Delegates election between legislative approvals of an amendment.
“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” Kelsey wrote. “For this reason, the congressional district maps issued by this Court in 2021 pursuant to Article II, Section 6-A of the Constitution of Virginia remain the governing maps for the upcoming 2026 congressional elections.”
Supporters of the amendment argued the new maps were needed to address partisan imbalances in the current congressional boundaries, which now produce a 6-5 split between Democrats and Republicans in Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Opponents argued the proposal was a partisan effort designed to give Democrats a significant advantage in future congressional elections.
For Fluvanna County, the proposal could have brought major changes in congressional representation.
Under draft maps discussed during the campaign, Fluvanna likely would have been shifted into a heavily Democratic “College Town” district linking the county with urban and university-centered localities in Central and Northern Virginia rather than its current rural-based alignment.
Analyses of the proposed maps projected they could have produced a congressional delegation tilted as heavily as 10-1 in favor of Democrats in strong Democratic election years.
Fluvanna voters rejected the amendment in the April 21 special election, even as it narrowly passed statewide.
U.S. Rep. John McGuire, whose 5th District seat likely would have become significantly more difficult for Republicans to hold under the proposed maps, praised the ruling Friday.
“The Redistricting Commission was created to ensure all Virginians’ voices are heard, and thanks to the Virginia Supreme Court, that will not change,” McGuire said in a statement. “Virginia Democrats’ hasty, dishonest, and illegal attempts to redraw our maps proved how desperate they are to take away our representation. Democrat politicians in Virginia tried to cheat by violating our constitution, but thank God they didn’t get away with it.”
Democrat Tom Perriello, who had planned to run in a newly configured 6th District, announced after the ruling that he would instead run in the 5th District seat he held for one term beginning in 2008.
