Justices of the Supreme Court of Virginia will hear arguments in a challenge to the redistricting amendment today — and there is some precedent.
Democrats in the General Assembly created a partisan map to harm Republicans, and then the Supreme Court of Virginia declared it was unconstitutional. That's what happened in 1932, when the court threw out the congressional map three weeks before the November election. Legal expert Rich Kelsey says the Supreme Court of today is not looking at election results from the referendum or the deadline for candidates to qualify.
"The Virginia Supreme Court has a rich history of doing exactly what it thinks it should do irrespective of what anyone thinks it will do," Kelsey says. "And I expect that that tradition will continue."
Mark Rozell is dean of the Schar School at George Mason University, and he says the current debate over the hyper-partisan amendment has echoes of how the Democrats drew the congressional map in 1932.
"It was a blatantly partisan redistricting in order to advantage the Democrats who had the power at that time," says Rozell. "And of course, the Republicans are saying today that the redistricting plan was a blatant, partisan power grab intended to diminish Republican representation."
Justices of the Supreme Court will rule when they're good and ready, although the deadline for candidates to file for office is next month.
