VA Supreme Court to Review House Map   04/27 06:05

   

   (AP) -- The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a 
Republican challenge to the redrawn congressional map that was approved by 
voters last week and could net Democrats four additional U.S. House seats.

   The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated 
procedural requirements by placing the 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.

   The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national 
redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in 
a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their 
narrow majority in the U.S. House.

   President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their 
favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set 
off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter 
approval last week of Virginia's new map.

   Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has included 
congressional redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the 
GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.

   On Sunday, Trump said he was in favor of the Florida attempt and criticized 
the Virginia amendment that was pushed by Democrats.

   "It's a very bad thing for our country. Very, very bad," he told Fox News 
Channel's "The Sunday Briefing."

   So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw. Republicans think 
they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, 
Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 
additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But 
legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.

   Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and 
five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a 
bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 
census. The new districts, which narrowly won voter approval last Tuesday, 
could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.

   At issue before the state Supreme Court is whether those districts should be 
invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers.

   Because the state's redistricting commission was established by a 
voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose a new 
constitutional amendment to redraw districts themselves. That required approval 
of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election 
sandwiched in between, to place an amendment on the ballot.

   In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, 
ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the 
redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack 
Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment 
before the public began voting in last year's general election and that the 
state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as 
required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.

   The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley's order on hold and allowed the 
redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case. Republicans 
have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding 
their way through the courts.