Richmond—Today, the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the results of April’s statewide referendum on redistricting, ruling that the process used to advance the constitutional amendment was procedurally flawed. The 4-3 decision holds that the General Assembly’s October 2025 vote to propose the amendment violated the state constitution’s intervening-election requirement because some Virginians had already cast ballots under early voting before that vote occurred. The ruling reinstates the 2021 congressional maps and blocks implementation of the new maps that voters approved last month. The ruling comes as Republicans across the country continue to exploit redistricting to entrench their power ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

“Today’s ruling is a disgraceful act of judicial sabotage against the more than 1.6 million ordinary Virginians who voted to restore fairness to our congressional elections,” said Ashleigh Crocker, Interim Executive Director of Progress Virginia.“ Republicans in Texas, North Carolina, and Missouri have been allowed to ram through blatant partisan gerrymanders without ever asking the voters whose representation they were distorting. In Virginia, voters were given a choice. The amendment was put on the ballot in a free and fair election, Virginians voted yes, and now a bare partisan majority on the court has decided those votes should be thrown out because they found a procedural excuse to overturn an outcome they did not like. The Supreme Court of Virginia has chosen partisan politics over democracy and handed Trump and his allies an unfair advantage heading into the midterm elections, while the Supreme Court of the United States continues shredding voting rights protections across the country. Overtuning the will of the voters for naked political reasons is not justice. It is an abuse of power.”