Constitutional Law · Civil Rights · Elections · Electoral Systems·May 8, 2026
Virginia court voids redistricting referendum, keeps GOP maps
Virginia court strikes voter-approved map, blocking four Democratic House seats
Photo: AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinsonsource ↗
The Supreme Court of Virginia struck down a voter-approved 📖redistricting amendment on May 8, 2026, in a 4-3 ruling that voided the results of Virginia's April 21 special election. More than 3.1 million Virginians had voted in that referendum, with 1,604,276 casting "yes" ballots to authorize the Democrat-controlled General Assembly to redraw congressional maps mid-decade. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote for the majority that the legislature violated Article XII, Section 1 of Virginia's constitution by submitting the amendment after early voting had already begun in the 2025 House of Delegates elections, meaning more than 1.3 million Virginians who cast ballots in that election were denied a constitutional voice on whether to change the amendment process. The ruling keeps Virginia's current congressional map in place for 2026, preserving the existing 6-5 Democratic advantage and blocking a redrawn map that Democrats argued could have produced a 10-1 Democratic majority. Gov. Abigail Spanberger, Attorney General 
Jay Jones, and House Speaker Don Scott filed an emergency motion to pause the ruling and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The decision landed one week after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted key 📖Voting Rights Act protections, accelerating Republican 📖redistricting efforts in southern states.
Key facts
The Supreme Court of Virginia struck down Virginia's 📖redistricting referendum on May 8, 2026, in a 4-3 decision written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey. Voters had approved the constitutional amendment on April 21 by a margin of , roughly 51.69% to 48.31%, a gap of 3.38 percentage points. The ruling declared that vote null and void.
The court found that the General Assembly violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution, which requires a constitutional amendment to pass the legislature twice with an intervening general election in between. The majority held that the 'general election' begins when early voting opens, not on Election Day itself.
Virginia's Democratic-controlled legislature first approved the 📖redistricting amendment on October 31, 2025, but early voting for the 2025 House of Delegates elections had opened on September 19. By October 31, had already cast ballots, about 40% of the total vote for that election cycle. The court found that those voters were denied their constitutional right to weigh in on the amendment before the legislature acted.
The second legislative vote came in January 2026, after Democrats expanded their House of Delegates majority in November 2025, gaining 13 seats. Voters then ratified the amendment in the April 21 special election. The court ruled the entire process was tainted from the start.
Justice Kelsey wrote that the commonwealth submitted the amendment 'in an unprecedented manner.' 'This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,' he wrote. As a result, Virginia's congressional maps drawn by the state Supreme Court in 2021 remain in place, in Virginia's 11-seat U.S. House delegation.
Chief Justice Cleo Powell, the first African American woman to lead the court, elected by the General Assembly in 2011 and re-elected in 2023, dissented, joined by Justices Mann and Fulton. Powell argued the majority's broad reading of 'election' to encompass the entire early-voting period contradicts both Virginia and federal law.
The redrawn map Democrats sought would have reshaped all 11 of Virginia's congressional districts to give Democrats a chance at , cutting Republican representation to a single district. Under the proposed map, 47% of Virginians who voted for Republican congressional candidates in 2024 would have been represented by just 9% of Virginia's U.S. House delegation. The court's majority cited this partisan imbalance in explaining the stakes of the procedural violation.
Democrats had framed the referendum as a direct response to President Trump's 2025 campaign urging Republican-led states, starting with Texas, to redraw their congressional maps mid-decade. Trump posted on Truth Social after the ruling: 'Huge win for the Republican Party, and America, in Virginia.'
Gov. Abigail Spanberger said she was 'disappointed' but pledged to focus on November. 'More than three million Virginians cast their ballots in Virginia's 📖redistricting referendum,' she said in a . Attorney General Jay Jones called it a politically motivated ruling. 'Today the Supreme Court of Virginia has chosen to put politics over the rule of law,' Jones said.
Republicans applauded the outcome. Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, one of the plaintiffs who filed the original lawsuit in October 2025, said the ruling 'affirms what we all know: you cannot violate the Constitution to change the Constitution.' Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin posted that 'justice has been served.'
Virginia Democrats filed an emergency motion late Friday asking the state Supreme Court to pause its ruling while they prepare an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The joint motion was filed by Attorney General Jones, House Speaker Don Scott, Senate Majority Leader
Scott Surovell, and Senate President Pro Tempore
Louise Lucas. The confirmed plans for an 'Emergency Petition' to SCOTUS.
Legal analysts called it a long shot. The U.S. Supreme Court generally declines to second-guess state courts interpreting their own state constitutions. In 2023, it refused a request by North Carolina Republicans to override a state court ruling on congressional maps. 'The appeal to SCOTUS is a legal long shot,' 13News Now reported.
Virginia's justices are selected entirely by the General Assembly, not by gubernatorial appointment or partisan election. Both chambers of the legislature vote to elect justices to 12-year terms. That structure meant Virginia's Democratic-majority legislature elected the justices who then voted 4-3 against the Democratic 📖redistricting plan, reinforcing that the split tracked judicial philosophy on constitutional procedure, not a simple partisan divide.
Justice Kelsey, who wrote the majority opinion, was elected to the court by the legislature. Chief Justice Powell, who led the dissent, was also elected by the legislature, unanimously elevated to chief justice by her fellow justices in August 2025, effective January 1, 2026.
The Virginia ruling arrived one week after the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which eviscerated a key provision of the 📖Voting Rights Act. By a 6-3 vote, the high court invalidated Louisiana's second majority-Black congressional district, ruling that using race as a cannot be justified by Section 2 of the VRA absent proof of recent intentional discrimination. That ruling triggered rapid 📖redistricting moves in Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana, all aimed at eliminating majority-Black districts.
U.S. Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04) tied the two decisions together, saying the Virginia ruling 'comes as GOP-led Southern states rush to dilute Black votes and erase Black representation in Congress following the gutting of the 📖Voting Rights Act.'
The 📖redistricting fight in Virginia was part of a sparked by Trump's 2025 push. Before 2025, only two states had voluntarily redistricted mid-decade since 1970. By May 2026, seven states had adopted new maps: California, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Utah, with more changes pending in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter estimated the total net benefit for Republicans in 2026 could reach four to five seats even before the Virginia ruling.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN: 'If the current map holds in Virginia, we will at minimum flip two seats.' He said Democrats were 'exploring other options' given Trump's declining approval ratings.
The case, Don Scott v. McDougle, was filed in October 2025 by Republican lawmakers including state Sen. Ryan McDougle of Hanover, state Sen. Bill Stanley of Franklin, Del.
Terry Kilgore, and 📖redistricting commission member Virginia Trost Thornton. They argued the legislature exceeded its authority and failed to follow required steps. A Tazewell County Circuit Court judge, Jack C. Hurley, ruled against the amendment in January 2026, and the state Supreme Court placed that ruling on hold to allow the April 21 vote to proceed. The Supreme Court heard and issued its ruling twelve days later.
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