RICHMOND, Va. (CN) - In a win for President Donald Trump, the Virginia Supreme Court killed a Democratic redistricting effort Friday that aimed to add four blue congressional seats. 

The ruling comes after over 1.6 million voters approved a constitutional amendment in April allowing legislators to redraw congressional maps ahead of November's midterm elections. 

"On the issues before us in this case, we hold that the ultimate vote margin plays no role in the analytics of our judicial review of the constitutionality of the pre-election constitutional amendment process," Justice Arthur Kelsey said, writing for the majority. "Neither a high margin of success nor a single-digit margin logically or legally matters."

Kelsey emphasized the partisan nature of the effort. Democrats began the two-year process in 2024, claiming it was a response to Trump's call for Texas to add additional Republican seats. The proposed map dispersed slivers of Northern Virginia, a densely populated, wealthy liberal suburb of Washington, D.C., throughout the state. 

"Under the proposed new map, approximately 47% of Virginians that voted for representatives of one of the major political parties in the last congressional election would now be represented by 9% of Virginia's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives - while the approximately 51% of Virginians that voted for the other major political party would now be represented by 91% of Virginia's congressional delegation," Kelsey said. 

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, accused the Republican-led majority of contorting state law and the constitution to "fit their political agenda."

"Today, the Supreme Court of Virginia has chosen to put politics over the rule of law by issuing a ruling that overturns the April 21st special election on redistricting," Jones said in a statement. "This decision silences the voices of the millions of Virginians who cast their ballots in every corner of the commonwealth, and it fuels the growing fears across our nation about the state of our democracy."

Amid several lawsuits from national and state Republicans, Virginia's minority party challenged the amendment for a handful of reasons, ranging from the ballot question's partisan nature to procedural defects in the process. Republicans filed the two primary challenges in rural Tazewell County, where a local judge ruled in their favor. The majority ultimately relied on a challenge to the timing of an intervening election to nullify the referendum. 

"While the commonwealth is free by its lights to do the right thing for the right reason, the rule of law requires that it be done the right way," Kelsey said. "In this case, the commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement in Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia. This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void."

The state constitution requires the General Assembly to give voters two opportunities to vote on representation before implementing any amendments. Democrats, who control both chambers, recalled legislators in October 2025 on party lines under the guise of a special session initially called in 2024 to correct a budgetary error. 

Democrats passed the amendment for the first time after nearly a million Virginians had already cast their ballots through early voting in the 2025 election. The ruling hinged on the definition of the word election: Republicans successfully argued that early voting is part of an election, so Democrats missed the opportunity to use the fall 2025 election. Democrats, meanwhile, argued they satisfied the constitutional requirements because an election is defined as the day the votes are counted. 

"Under this thesis, early Virginia voters unknowingly forfeited their constitutionally protected opportunity to vote for or against delegates who favor or disfavor amending the constitution by not anticipating a legislative vote on a constitutional amendment four days before the last day of voting," Kelsey said. "To be sure, under the commonwealth's logic, the legislative vote could just as well have been one day before."

Chief Justice Cleo Powell, Justice Thomas Mann and Justice Junius Fulton dissented from the majority.

"Today, the majority has broadened the meaning of the word 'election,' as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election," Powell said. "Under the facts of this case, I believe the circuit court erred, and I respectfully disagree with the majority's conclusion that the General Assembly did not strictly comply with Virginia's constitutional requirements."

The ruling comes after the FBI raided the office and businesses of one of the effort's chief architects, Virginia state Senate leader Louise Lucas over supposed corruption. The government has yet to file any charges. Speaker of the House of Delegates Don Scott expressed his disappointment but said his party would respect the court's decision.

"Three million people voted in a free and fair election. We gave this decision to the voters - exactly where it belongs - and they spoke loud and clear. They voted YES because they wanted to fight back against the Trump power grab," Scott said in a statement. "That truth doesn't change because of a court ruling. This was always about more than one election - it was about whether the voices of the people matter. And no decision can erase what Virginians made clear at the ballot box."

The current map, which resulted in six Democrats and five Republicans in Congress, followed the commonwealth's 2020 vote on a constitutional amendment prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. Democrats who supported the 2021 amendment claimed that Trump's push to add seats in red states necessitated the temporary redrawing of districts. Democrats repeatedly said they would allow the nonpartisan redistricting commission to resume its role in 2030. 

"Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose," Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. "Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats' unconstitutional maps. The RNC led the charge in court against this blatant power grab, where Virginia Democrats poured more than $66 million into an effort to lock in control and silence voters. We took them to court, and we won."

Source: Courthouse News Service