MAY 9, 2026
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down voter-approved redistricting maps in 4-3 ruling, dealing setback to Democrats
The Virginia Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling on Friday striking down a congressional redistricting map that Virginia voters had approved in an April 21 special election, in which approximately 1.6 million ballots were cast. The court held that the state legislature used an incorrect procedural sequence when placing the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The decision eliminates a map that Democrats said could have netted them up to four additional U.S. House seats heading into the November midterms.
Justice D. Arthur Kelsey authored the prevailing opinion, writing that the sequencing in which Democrats held the referendum violated the Virginia Constitution, which requires an intervening election between the legislature's mandatory first and second passage of any proposed constitutional amendment. Three justices dissented.
Kelsey's opinion also described the proposed map's expected partisan effect, noting that it would have replaced Virginia's current 6-5 congressional split with an arrangement projected to produce a 10-1 advantage for one party. The opinion stated that roughly 47 percent of Virginians who voted for one party in the last congressional election would have ended up represented by just 9 percent of the congressional delegation under the new map.
Fox News led its coverage with a notable detail: Justice Kelsey was originally appointed to the Virginia Court of Appeals in 2002 by then-Governor Mark Warner, a Democrat who later donated $100,000 to the pro-redistricting campaign and appeared at events supporting the referendum. A Republican-controlled legislature later elevated Kelsey to the Virginia Supreme Court, where he has served since 2015. Warner said after the ruling that he respected the decision but that "it's impossible to ignore that more than three million Virginians already cast their ballots on the amendment and deserved to have their voices heard." NPR's coverage placed the Virginia decision within a broader national redistricting race, noting that Republicans had already reshaped roughly 13 House seats in their favor — through maps in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and Florida — before the ruling, while Democrats had gained approximately 10 seats.