In a stunning victory for election integrity and a humiliating defeat for the Virginia Democrat establishment, a circuit court judge has officially deadlocked the Left’s desperate attempt to rig the state’s congressional maps.
On Tuesday, Tazewell County Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. issued a blistering ruling that effectively dismantles the Democrats’ partisan redistricting scheme, declaring their process unconstitutional and blocking any referendum on the matter until after the 2027 House of Delegates election.
The controversy centers on a brazen 11th-hour maneuver by Democrats in Richmond to bypass Virginia’s voter-approved Bipartisan Redistricting Commission.
Fearful of losing their grip on power in Washington, Democrat leadership attempted to ram through a constitutional amendment that would have handed map-drawing power back to the legislature, allowing them to gerrymander a permanent advantage in the state’s congressional delegation ahead of the crucial 2026 midterms.
In his decision, Judge Hurley found that Democrats had trampled over the state’s constitutional requirements in their haste to seize power.
The court ruled that the legislature failed to provide the mandatory 90-day public notice before voting on the amendment, a basic transparency measure designed to keep the public informed.
Even more egregious was the timing. Democrats attempted to pass the amendment during the 2025 special session while early voting for the November election was already underway.
Judge Hurley noted that this maneuver effectively disenfranchised over a million Virginians who had already cast their ballots without knowing their constitution was being rewritten behind their backs.
According to the court’s order, Democrats failed to observe essential constitutional procedures:
They didn’t adhere to the required timeline for posting proposed constitutional amendments for public inspection as mandated by Virginia law.
They attempted to expand a special session — originally called for unrelated budget issues — to approve a redistricting amendment without appropriate authorization.
And crucially, the legislature attempted to move forward after in-person voting had already started in other races, a violation the court said couldn’t be justified by redefining election timing.
Judge Hurley’s injunction specifically blocks the plan from going to voters until the next legally permissible intervening election, after the 2027 House of Delegates election, meaning Democrats’ hopes of stacking the map for 2026 are now legally frozen.
