In their effort to wipe out 80% of the state's Republican representation, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. recently set back Old Dominion Democrats by ruling that their proposed constitutional amendment to redraw the state's congressional maps was illegal on procedural grounds.
He said lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session, failed to approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year's general election, and failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law.
As a result, he deemed the amendment invalid and void.
"I certainly was happy to see the decision by a lower court … ruling that the left-wing radical Democrats, that sadly are now in control of Virginia, have overreached and violated some procedures in their mad effort to literally wipe four Republican congressmen out of the congressional delegation," comments Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D), who was listed in Republicans' lawsuit over the resolution, said Democrats would appeal the ruling by the end of the week, and they have already filed a formal appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
They call Judge Hurley's ruling legally incorrect and accuse Republicans of "court-shopping" in Tazewell, which they call a known GOP-friendly jurisdiction.
The next steps will depend on how the appeals court handles the filing, but the Democrats intend to continue pressing to put the matter before voters — potentially in a spring referendum if the appeals court reverses or stays the injunction.
"I'm not optimistic as the case moves up that ultimately the courts in the state will stop what the Democrats are trying to do," Bauer tells AFN.
The state is currently represented in the House by six Democrats and five Republicans, but the Democrats want to redraw the lines to make it 10 Democrats and only one Republican.
