A Virginia circuit court judge on Tuesday issued an injunction preventing state Democrats from moving forward with a proposed constitutional amendment that would permit the state legislature to redraw congressional boundaries. Judge Jack Hurley, Jr. of the Tazewell County Circuit Court found that the procedure used to introduce the proposed amendment was invalid and occurred too close to the state’s election last November.
The ruling poses an immediate obstacle to Democratic leaders in Richmond who had planned to put the amendment before voters after the legislature approved it earlier this month. Advocates within the Democratic majority argued the change could translate into as many as four additional U.S. House seats for the party if voters approve the measure, altering the balance of Virginia’s 11-seat congressional delegation.
At present, Democrats hold six of Virginia’s 11 House seats. Lawmakers had signaled an intention to schedule a special election this spring and indicated they would publish a proposed new congressional map in advance so voters could weigh the amendment with a clear sense of its effects. The judge’s decision pauses that timetable.
Don Scott, the Democratic Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said in a social media post that the party plans to appeal the court’s ruling.
The dispute in Virginia unfolds against a broader nationwide contest over redistricting as both parties seek maps that could improve their standing ahead of November’s midterm elections. Control of the U.S. House of Representatives remains finely balanced: Democrats need to flip three Republican-held districts across the country to secure a 218-seat majority in the 435-member chamber, a fact that parties and strategists have highlighted in state-level redistricting efforts.
Examples of state-level maneuvers were evident last year, when President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to adopt a new congressional map aimed at five Democratic incumbents, and when California Democrats advanced a new map targeting five Republican-held seats. The Virginia ruling comes amid those broader legal and political battles over how and when congressional lines are redrawn.
Judge Hurley’s finding centers on the timing and procedural validity of the amendment’s introduction rather than on the substance of the proposed map itself. Because the court determined the process was flawed, the planned sequence of publishing a new map and holding a special election this spring has been interrupted until the appeals process and any further legal actions resolve the procedural questions.
Summary - A Tazewell County judge blocked a Virginia constitutional amendment initiative that would have allowed the legislature to redraw congressional districts, saying the process to introduce it was invalid and occurred too close to last November’s election. The decision halts plans to publish a new map and hold a special election this spring; Democrats say they will appeal.