In Major Win For Voting Rights, SCOTUS Rules Virginia Unconstitutionally Used Race To Gerrymander Districts
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of the plaintiffs who argued that Virginia Republicans had drawn state House of Delegates districts that were unconstitutional.
The court overturned a previous lower level district court ruling that found Virginia did not impermissibly use race. The Supreme Court remanded the case back to the district court for reconsideration that will use a different legal standard which makes it much more likely that many of the gerrymandered districts could be invalidated.
Virginia Republicans admitted to using a population threshold of 55 percent African American when they redrew the state House districts that previously had a black majority.
And by packing black voters into just a few heavily black districts, the Republican legislators effectively made it harder for blacks to elect their preferred candidates in neighboring districts.
It is not clear whether a new ruling from the lower court will come in time for Virginia’s state House elections this November.
If the court ends up redrawing the map, it could end up leading to a much more favorable map for Democrats and would potentially put Democratic majority of the state House in play.
In 2015, in an unrelated racial gerrymandering case, a federal court struck down Virginia’s congressional map and the court ended up redrawing the map after a compromise could not be found.
