Virginia Democrats ask US Supreme Court to let them use new congressional map

By John Fritze, CNN

(CNN) — Democratic officials in Virginia asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate a congressional map that would benefit their party ahead of this year’s midterm elections, the latest map drawing appeal to reach the high court amid a flurry of mid-decade redistricting.

The emergency appeal follows a decision from the state Supreme Court last week that voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw Virginia’s US House map via an April referendum in a way that would help Democrats pick up four additional seates. The Democrats are asking the US Supreme Court to effectively put that order on hold for this year’s midterm election.

The decision, the officials said, was “deeply mistaken” and had “profound practical importance to the nation.”

The US Supreme Court is already deeply enmeshed in a flood of redistricting taking place in states across the country as both parties seek to eke an advantage out of House boundaries in the fall election. Several southern states have moved to redraw their maps following a blockbuster decision in late April that severely weakened the scope of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Virginia case will be handled, at least initially, by Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals from Virginia and other states covered by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals. Roberts asked for a response in the case by Thursday evening.

Though it was not based on the Voting Rights Act decision, Virginia’s redistricting was nevertheless seen by Democrats as a way to offset the advantage Republicans have picked up from that effort. But the state’s highest court ruled that the process state officials used to create the referendum violated the state constitution.

“The irreparable harm resulting from the Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision is profound and immediate,” Democrats told the US Supreme Court on Monday. “By forcing the commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts.”

The redistricting in Virginia would have given Democrats the chance to win as many as four more seats, potentially reducing the state’s GOP representation to a single district.

The emergency appeal was filed by Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat, as well as Democratic state lawmakers.

But the appeal is likely to be an uphill fight for the party because the state’s highest court resolved the case based on state, not federal law.

Under the state constitution, the General Assembly must vote twice before sending a proposed constitutional amendment to voters for their consideration, with a general election intervening between those votes. Republicans argued that the first vote to approve the referendum – taken in late October 2025 – did not count because early voting for the general election was well underway.

Partisan politics at the court?

In their appeal, the Virginia Democrats said the state court misread the federal definition of “election” to include early voting. Interestingly, they have relied on a theory that the justices are considering in another case dealing with mail ballots that arrive after Election Day.

At the same time that it is reviewing the Virginia appeal, the justices have approved a request from Alabama to change its map. State officials there were given permission to use a map the state enacted in 2023 that includes only one district where Black voters have an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

The appeals come as some of the justices have openly debate the court’s impact on this year’s midterm election. Following the Voting Rights Act decision last month, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson traded barbs with Justice Samuel Alito over how quickly Louisiana could redraw its map. Jackson accused the court of rolling over its “principles” in pursuit of influencing the November election. Alito fired back, calling that “insulting.” The conservative justice said Jackson’s dissent raised “trivial” and “baseless” arguments.

Days later, Roberts lamented what he framed as a widespread misunderstanding of the Supreme Court’s work as political.

“People think we’re making policy decisions,” Roberts told a conference of attorneys and judges on Wednesday.

“I think they view us as truly political actors,” he said, “which I don’t think is an accurate understanding of what we do.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.