Virginia court declares state’s redistricting vote was unconstitutional in legal win for Republicans

Republicans are cheering a circuit court victory in Virginia that showed Democrats’ redistricting efforts in Virginia are not quite over yet despite a referendum to accept a new map drawn by Democrats getting approved by voters Tuesday.

Virginia Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley ruled Wednesday, one day after the Democrat redistricting referendum passed, that all votes for or against the proposed redistricting amendment were unconstitutional, citing rules that impose certain requirements that the referendum did not meet. 

There are a handful of cases making their way through the Virginia court system challenging various aspects of the referendum, including the one Hurley ruled on Wednesday.

“The Tazewell Circuit Court just ruled the referendum unconstitutional. The Judge entered an injunction blocking certification of the election & denied a motion to stay pending appeal. A final order will be entered once drafted, & it will be immediately appealed,” former Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on X after Hurley’s ruling. 

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Shortly after the ruling came down, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat who beat GOP incumbent Jason Miyares in November, indicated his office will “immediately file an appeal.”

Cuccinelli, who heads the American Principles Project Election Transparency Initiative, indicated Wednesday there are four constitutional challenges to the referendum making their way through the courts, three of which are challenges to the amendment process itself.

“Virginia has a process to amend its constitution that has the General Assembly pass a proposed amendment and then have a state election — an intervening election — where the new House of Delegates was elected and so forth. And then that new General Assembly comes back and has to pass the exact same amendment,” Cuccinelli told CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings on Wednesday.

“The General Assembly passed the amendment for the first time — called first passage, very creative — on Halloween. Well, these same Democrats, five years ago, gave us a 45-day election. So, voting began September 19 of 2025. Over a million people had already voted before first passage, and they want to treat that election as the intervening election. They’re going to have a very difficult time with that.”

Cuccinelli added that there are other “equally difficult” constitutional challenges Democrats are facing in this legal battle, which he said he expects to move quickly through the courts. Cuccinelli told Jennings he expects a final ruling on the matter by May.

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Shortly after news of the Virginia circuit court ruling in Tazewell, Jones announced his office would be immediately appealing the measure. Jones argued that “an activist judge” should not have the power to veto “the People’s vote.”

“Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote,” Jones said Wednesday after the ruling. “We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court.”

Democrat strategist Adam Parkhomenko echoed Jones’ criticism after the news broke Wednesday but also said he has expectations that Republicans’ legal challenges will not hold up in court.

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“Virginia voters spoke. MAGA lost. And now a rogue Republican judge is trying to override the will of the people because they didn’t like the outcome,” Parkhomenko said on X. “That’s not democracy. That’s desperation.”

Parkhomenko added he has “full confidence a higher court will overturn this nonsense quickly, and the will of Virginia voters will prevail.”

“Nice try,” the Dem strategist added.