The Daily Populous Saturday May 9th, 2026 night edition
Authored by motherjones.com and submitted by Rock-n-roll-Kevin

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The redistricting news for Democrats has gone from bad to worse.

A week after the US Supreme Court effectively destroyed the Voting Rights Act, opening the door to Southern states invalidating majority-Black districts across the South, the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday overturned a redistricting referendum approved by voters last month that was expected to net Democrats four new US House seats.

These two decisions by conservative-dominated courts now put Democrats at a significant disadvantage in the gerrymandering arms race launched by Donald Trump last summer when he ordered Texas to gerrymander five new Republican seats.

With the passage of the Virginia map, Democrats had mostly succeeded in reaching a draw with Republicans in the redistricting wars. But with the Virginia map overturned and Southern states—including Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, and South Carolina—rushing to pass new maps before the midterms, Democrats could face a four to five-seat disadvantage heading into November, according to Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report. While that is not insurmountable in a wave election—and Democrats could still pick up two seats in Virginia under the existing map—it gives Democrats little margin for error in the effort to take back the House.

In the 4-3 decision, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the April referendum violated the state Constitution because amendments must be passed twice by the legislature, with an election in between. The first time they passed it was after early voting started, so it doesn’t count. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote,” the court wrote, “and nullifies its legal efficacy.”

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Cleo Powell wrote that the majority had “broadened the meaning of the word ‘election,’ as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election.”

The decision effectively tosses out three million votes cast in the referendum on a legal technicality. It’s worth noting that voters in red states have not been able to weigh in on any of the mid-decade gerrymanders passed by their legislatures. And while those states have different laws than Virginia, voters in Florida and Ohio did pass prohibitions on gerrymandering that their legislatures flagrantly ignored—but conservative-dominated state supreme courts in those states are unlikely to void the new maps.

It’s impossible to ignore the national context: It appears that Democrats are bound by one set of rules while Republicans play by another, and Republican-appointed judges have repeatedly put their collective thumb on the scale of elections to make sure their party prevails.

straygoat193 on May 8th, 2026 at 19:10 UTC »

"In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Cleo Powell wrote that the majority had “broadened the meaning of the word ‘election,’ as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election.”"

Iconic254 on May 8th, 2026 at 18:54 UTC »

Three million votes nullified. This is what a real threat to democracy looks like. If they can’t beat you, they’ll just find a judge to say you don't count. We need to remember this in November.

DivineBladeOfSilver on May 8th, 2026 at 18:54 UTC »

This is what is the top of my mind right now. We are all fighting about legality and gerrymandering and this and that. But does any of it REALLY matter when your state or country just needs the right judges to give rulings that favor you? I mean people are saying it all over themselves. The judges declared it so it must happen. Who really cares what is or isn’t technically legal anymore when all of us know now the judicial system is corrupt and rules in their party’s favor on any side?

And this doesn’t even take into account situations like in Ohio where and illegal map was used for 3 years because according to federal courts “well we don’t want chaos so let’s just use the illegal map”. You can actively ignore the law and delay until a system benefits you fit an election cycle or 2 and repeat.

America’s system is in shambles right now and I have little faith it can be repaired any time soon as everyone fights to cement their side’s power. I have 0 respect for every single branch of government currently and only expect people will keep acting in self interest more and more as time goes on rather than actually making it better