The Republican Party of Florida is celebrating a major legal victory today following a Virginia Supreme Court ruling that threw out a Democratic-led effort to redraw congressional maps.
Florida GOP officials characterized the decision as a win for election integrity and a necessary check on what they described as an attempt to bypass the law for political gain.
“Today’s ruling is a victory for the rule of law,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power. “Virginia Democrats tried to rig their congressional map to avoid losses at the ballot box, and the Virginia Supreme Court rightly rejected their efforts. Republicans will continue fighting for fair maps, equal representation, and election integrity.”
The court’s decision on Friday rendered a recent voter-approved constitutional amendment “null and void.” Justices ruled that the Democratic-controlled legislature failed to follow mandatory procedural steps before putting the redistricting plan on the ballot.
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Specifically, the court found the legislature violated the state constitution by holding its initial vote while early voting was already underway, rather than before the election period began.
The tossed-out map could have handed Democrats as many as four additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The plan included heavily debated boundaries, such as a district in northern Virginia that critics compared to a lobster for the way it reached out to absorb rural areas.
Evan Power noted that the ruling signals a shift away from these types of map-making strategies. “Gone are the days of rigged, snake-shaped, and racially gerrymandered maps designed purely to benefit Democrats,” Power said.
Legal arguments in the case hinged on the definition of an “election.” The legislature’s defense argued that the term applied only to the final Tuesday in November.
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However, the court sided with the plaintiffs’ attorney, Thomas McCarthy, who argued that an election encompasses the entire window in which citizens can cast ballots. Since the legislature did not finalize its first approval before early voting started, the entire process was deemed unconstitutional.
This ruling upholds a previous finding from a Tazewell County judge, who noted that the state also failed to publish the proposed amendment three months before the election as required by law.
As a result, the results of the April 21 referendum have been invalidated, dealing a significant blow to Democratic efforts to offset Republican redistricting gains in other states like Florida and Texas.
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