Democrats in Virginia are requesting the Supreme Court’s intervention after the Virginia Supreme Court killed a gerrymander scheme that would have redrawn the state’s congressional map in the Democrats’ favor, prior to the midterm elections.
In an emergency application for a stay filed on Monday, officials such as Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D) and Virginia Solicitor General Tillman Breckenbridge argued that the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling “overrode the will of the people” who voted in favor of the redistricting referendum, Fox5DC News reported.
In the filing, the officials said the court had found “a procedural flaw in the amendment’s passage and ratification,” adding that the court found that “the General Assembly failed to pass the amendment prior to the ‘next general election’ before passing it a second time” and referring it to the voters.
The officials continued to argue that the Virginia Supreme Court “is deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law,” one being that it “predicated its interpretation” of the state’s Constitution on a “grave misreading of federal law,” regarding election day being “a single day.” The second was that the Virginia Supreme Court had “arrogated to itself the power vested in the state legislature to regulate federal elections.”
“Days before Virginia’s deadline to begin administering the 2026 election for members of the United States House of Representatives, the Supreme Court of Virginia invalidated an amendment to the Commonwealth’s Constitution that authorizes the General Assembly to adopt new congressional maps,” the filing began. “The Court purported to find a procedural flaw in the amendment’s passage and ratification: that the General Assembly failed to pass the amendment prior to the ‘next general election’ before passing it a second time and referring the amendment to the people for their approval.”
The officials continued to add that the view of the Virginia Supreme Court was that “contrary to the Constitution’s own definition of the term ‘election’ to refer to a single day in November, the term instead encompasses the entire period of early voting beginning in September.”
“Based on that novel and manifestly atextual interpretation, the Court overrode the will of the people who ratified the amendment by ordering the Commonwealth to conduct its election with the congressional districts that the people rejected,” the filing continued. “A stay is warranted because the decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia is deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation.”
Steven Koski, who serves as the Commissioner for the Virginia Department of Elections, reportedly warned “the court that May 12, marks the final day changes could be made to congressional maps without significantly disrupting the state’s ability to meet primary election deadlines,” according to the outlet.
The request for the Supreme Court to get involved comes after the Virginia Supreme Court, in a 4-3 ruling, found that the “legislative process employed to advance” the redistricting referendum had violated Article XII, Section 1 of Virginia’s Constitution.
The court also explained that the “General Assembly must twice vote in favor of a proposed amendment at two separate legislative sessions with an intervening election of the House of Delegates.”
“On March 6, 2026, the General Assembly of Virginia submitted to Virginia voters a proposed constitutional amendment that authorizes partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts in the Commonwealth,” the court said in its decision. “We hold that the legislative process employed to advance this proposal violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia.”
The ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court came after Virginia residents voted in favor of the redistricting referendum in April, which would have changed the state’s congressional districts from 6-5 to 10-1, favoring the Democrats.