Updated 5:30 p.m.: Virginia Democrats asked the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday afternoon to stay its ruling nullifying the state's redistricting referendum while they prepare an appeal to the US Supreme Court.
The request for stay does not make clear what constitutional grounds the appeal will be based on, only that they plan to file one.
"Today's action is an imperative step in the process we promised to pursue to explore every available option to restore the will of the voters. We will continue moving through that process deliberately, responsibly, and with full respect for the voters who made their voices heard," said Rae Pickett, a spokesperson for Attorney General Jay Jones.
The Virginia General Assembly didn't follow the Constitution of Virginia when presenting voters with the April 21 ballot question on redistricting, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled Friday.
The 30-page majority opinion, authored by Justice Arthur D. Kelsey, states: "For this reason, the congressional district maps issued by this Court in 2021 pursuant to Article II, Section 6-A of the Constitution of Virginia remain the governing maps for the upcoming 2026 congressional elections."
By nullifying the result, SCOVA took the extraordinary step of invalidating a concluded, but not certified state election.
The state constitution requires that amendments be passed twice, with an election of the House of Delegates in between, before a ballot question can be put to voters. Virginia legislators first approved text during a hastily convened special session in October, then again in January after a landslide electoral victory for Democrats.
A 4–3 SCOVA majority held that the 2025 general election had already begun before Oct. 31, 2025, when the General Assembly passed the text of the redistricting amendment for the first time. Early voting — which Virginia expanded to a 45-day period in 2020 — began on Sept. 19.
"In this case, the Commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening-election requirement in Article XII, Section 1 of the Constitution of Virginia," Kelsey wrote. "This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void."
Chief Justice Cleo Powell and Justices Thomas Mann and Junius Fulton III dissented from that view, contending that in 1970, the General Assembly — which has the constitutional power to "regulate the time, place, manner, conduct, and administration" of elections — defined a "general election" in state law as a single day.
"Taken as a whole, Code § 24.2-101 clearly establishes that the General Assembly, in the exercise of its constitutional power to determine the time and manner of conducting elections, chose to limit elections to a single day," Powell wrote.
The ruling is a major victory for Virginia Republicans, the national GOP and President Donald Trump.
Nationwide, the ruling prevents an easy four-seat pickup by blue congressional hopefuls. General Assembly Democrats had drawn a map with a stronger advantage for Democrats in 10 of Virginia's 11 seats, rather than the slim 6–5 majority the party currently holds.
This leaves the current GOP delegation with their existing maps heading into the midterms: Rep. Ben Cline (6th) is in a district rated "safe Republican" by the Virginia Public Access Project; Rep. Rob Wittman (1st), Rep. Jenn Kiggans (2nd) and Rep. John McGuire (5th) are each in districts that "lean Republican." Rep. Morgan Griffith (9th), who would have likely held the GOP's remaining seat under the new maps, represents a "strong Republican" district.
However, Wittman and Kiggans are seen as two of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents nationwide heading into the fall.
The Supreme Court of Virginia has the final say on matters of Virginia law. As VPM News previously reported, state Sen. Ryan McDougle initially led the lawsuit in his capacities as a Republican state lawmaker and a member of the Virginia Redistricting Commission — the bipartisan mapmaking entity Virginians created via ballot referendum in 2020.
The case, McDougle v. Scott (formerly McDougle v. Nardo), was filed in Tazewell County last October. Then, on Feb. 13, SCOVA said the special amendment election could be held while it heard arguments in the case.
The decision came shortly after lawyers presented oral arguments on Monday, April 27. Virginia was originally scheduled to certify the Tuesday, April 21 election results on Friday, May 1.
But on Tuesday, April 28, SCOVA declined to lift a pause on the certification imposed by a Tazewell County judge.
Oral arguments in Richmond centered around the question of what comprises an election.
"Am I actively participating in the election when I vote? That seems to be the sin qua non of an election. I go and vote," said Justice Wesley Glenn Russell Jr.
Virginia Solicitor General Tillman Breckenridge told justices that ballots cast before Election Day are early votes.
"I think it's inherently fair for anyone who cast their vote early…to say to themselves, 'I am accepting that there's something [that] might happen in the interim, that that is significant, that might change my vote,'" he said.
Virginia voters ultimately approved the amendment on April 21 51.68% to 48.32%, with turnout only slightly below the 2025 gubernatorial election.
The court also was considering whether the state's circuit court clerks properly advertised the referendum and the ballot question, and if the General Assembly followed its own rules when it changed the scope of a special session to pass the amendment's text.
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