Virginia court rules against congressional redistricting referendum, calling it ‘unconstitutional’

TAZEWELL COUNTY, VIRGINIA: Virginia voters approved new congressional maps that could have benefited Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections, but a court has now called them unconstitutional.

Virginia Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley reportedly passed the judgment on Wednesday, April 22, blocking the results of a congressional redistricting referendum.

The referendum, which was passed a day earlier, could have given Democrats four more US House seats in November's midterm elections.

Sharing the news, journalist Bret Baier said, "The judge is now blocking certification of the election and DENYING a motion to stay pending appeal."

Ken Cuccinelli backs ruling blocking referendum

Following the judgment, former Republican Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said on X, “The Tazewell Circuit Court just ruled the referendum unconstitutional. The Judge entered an injunction blocking certification of the election & denied a motion to stay pending appeal.”

“A final order will be entered once drafted, & it will be immediately appealed,” he shared.

Ken Cuccinelli cites Virginia amendment process in dispute

Cuccinelli, who is the head of the American Principles Project Election Transparency Initiative, also spoke with CNN conservative commentator Scott Jennings.

He said, “Virginia has a process to amend its constitution that has the General Assembly pass a proposed amendment and then have a state election, an intervening election, where the new House of Delegates was elected and so forth.”

Continuing further, he explained that “the new General Assembly comes back and has to pass the exact same amendment. The General Assembly passed the amendment for the first time, called first passage, very creative, on Halloween. Well, these same Democrats, five years ago, gave us a 45-day election.”

“So, voting began September 19 of 2025. Over a million people had already voted before first passage, and they want to treat that election as the intervening election. They're going to have a very difficult time with that,” Cuccinelli added.

Democrats blast court ruling as ‘desperation’

But Democrats expressed their disappointment over the judgment.

In a statement, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones expressed his disappointment over the ruling. Jones said, “My office will immediately file an appeal in the Court of Appeals.”

He added, “As I said last night, Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote. We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court.”

Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko posted on X, “Virginia voters spoke. MAGA lost. And now a rogue Republican judge is trying to override the will of the people because they didn’t like the outcome. That’s not democracy. That’s desperation.”

He also said he is confident that “a higher court will overturn this nonsense quickly, and the will of Virginia voters will prevail."