U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Virginia Democrats Bid to Reinstate Redistricting Plan

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal by Virginia Democrats to revive a mid-decade congressional redistricting plan, allowing a state court ruling to stand and leaving in place Virginia’s existing congressional map for this year’s elections. The justices issued a one-sentence order declining to grant a stay of the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision, providing no explanation.

The rejected appeal followed last week’s ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court, which concluded lawmakers violated the Virginia Constitution in the way they advanced the referendum process authorizing the unusual redistricting effort. The state court found that legislators did not meet an “intervening election requirement,” approving steps in late October when early voting had already begun. In its opinion, the Virginia Supreme Court said the violation “irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void.”

After the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated the proposed map, Democratic officials sought U.S. Supreme Court intervention, arguing that the state court misread both state and federal law. Their emergency filing maintained that the...