Virginia GOP, Dems battle it out over redistricting before state Supreme Court
The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a Republican challenge to a congressional redistricting plan approved by voters last week that could help Democrats win as many as four...
By Fox News · Fox News
The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a Republican challenge to a congressional redistricting plan approved by voters last week that could help Democrats win as many as four additional U.S. House seats and turn a 6-5 delegate edge to 10-1. "The proposed amendment is invalid for several reasons, any one of which is sufficient to invalidate the proposed amendment and require invalidation of the vote ," Thomas McCarthy, lawyer for the Republican challenge, concluded in the hour-long hearing on Monday. The Republicans contend that the Democrat-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing a constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless. "It's often said ours is a government of laws, not of men," McCarthy continued. "Sadly, that's not the case if a bare partisan majority can circumvent the constitutional amendment process and undermine the rights of the people in whom all government power ultimately rests – also, that partisan majority can transform our system from a nonpartisan one where the voters elected representatives into a partisan one where the representatives select their voters." GOP FRACTURES OVER VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING MAP HANDING DEMOCRATS 10-1 EDGE "We ask that the court enforce the constitutional amendment process by affirming the decision below, declaring the proposed amendment invalid and enjoin certification of the election," he added. Lawyers for Democratic legislative leaders urged the Virginia Supreme Court to uphold the amendment and clear the way for the new map, arguing voters and lawmakers followed every step required by the state Constitution. In rebuttal, attorney Matthew Seligman said, "The people did, in fact, validly ratify the proposed amendment last Tuesday," and argued challengers were trying to undo a democratic process that had already b…