04/28/2026
The GOP in Loudoun County is doing some great write-ups on the ongoing courtroom challenges to the redistricting vote. Follow them!
I want to take a few minutes to tell you what happened in Richmond today — because it matters enormously to every Virginian who believes that elections should be decided by voters, not by whoever controls the legislature at any given moment.
This morning, Virginia’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Scott v. McDougle — the case challenging whether Democrats followed Virginia’s constitutional rules when they pushed their redistricting referendum onto the ballot last week. I followed the arguments closely, and I want to give you my honest assessment.
First, a little context—
Virginia’s Constitution has a deliberate, specific process for amending itself. It requires a proposed amendment to pass the legislature in two separate sessions, with a general election in between — so voters have time to weigh in on the people making that decision. It requires public notice posted 90 days out.
These aren’t technicalities. They’re guardrails built precisely to prevent one party from rewriting the rules of the game when they think they can get away with it.
Democrats violated all three requirements!
They used a special legislative session — one called specifically to resolve a budget dispute — to slip redistricting through the back door. They took their first legislative vote after early voting had already begun in the 2025 elections, meaning over a million Virginians cast their ballots without any idea this was coming. And proper public notice wasn’t posted in every locality as the law requires.
Now — what happened in that courtroom today—
Here’s what I can tell you: the justices were not equally skeptical of both sides.
Democrat lawyers faced pointed, probing questions. The justices pressed hard on the weakest parts of their argument — particularly the claim that popular approval of the referendum should override the procedural violations that got it onto the ballot. Justice Wesley Russell kept returning to the same fundamental question: did the legislature actually follow the constitutional requirements? That question has a very uncomfortable answer for the Democrats.
Our lawyers, by contrast, were met with questions that largely drew out and expanded the Republican case. In a courtroom, that kind of asymmetry means a lot. Judges who are genuinely skeptical of your position don’t help you make it.
What this means for Republicans is genuinely encouraging news — not a victory, but a very promising sign. A ruling in our favor strikes down the Democrat gerrymander and restores the bipartisan redistricting commission that you — the voters of Virginia — approved in 2020. It reaffirms that the Constitution applies to everyone, including legislative majorities who’d rather it didn’t.
What this means for Democrats— their central argument today was essentially: the voters approved it, so it shouldn’t matter how we got here.
Courts, as a general rule, don’t accept that reasoning — and today’s justices didn’t appear to either.
Governor Spanberger and Speaker Scott will tell you the fight isn’t over. They’re right that it isn’t. But after today, their path got considerably narrower.
What comes next?
The court will issue its written ruling — likely soon, given that congressional candidates face a filing deadline of May 26th. In the meantime, the lower court injunction blocking certification of the referendum results remains in place. The other side cannot move forward. Additional Republican legal challenges are also working through the courts simultaneously.
My honest read is this—
1️⃣Three documented constitutional violations.
2️⃣A lower court that already ruled against Democrats on the merits.
3️⃣Justices today who were visibly harder on one side than the other.
I expect the Virginia Supreme Court to uphold the lower court ruling and strike down this referendum.
More than that — I believe they should. Not because it benefits Republicans, though it does. But
✅because the bipartisan redistricting commission Virginians voted for in 2020 deserves to be honored.
✅Because a million early voters deserved to know what was coming before they cast their ballots.
✅Because the Constitution means what it says, regardless of which party finds that inconvenient.
Reagan used to remind us that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction — that it has to be fought for and defended. I’d add that so does the rule of law.
Today, Virginia’s Supreme Court took that seriously.
We’ll keep you posted the moment a ruling comes down. In the meantime — stay engaged, stay informed, and know that good people are fighting hard for the right outcome.
