Today in Supreme Court History: May 9, 1974

5/9/1974: Resolution to impeach President Nixon introduced in the House of Representatives. On 7/24/1974, the Supreme Court would decide U.S.… The post Today in Supreme Court History: May 9, 1974 appeared first on Reason.com.

Error-prone Virginia Dems ask state Supreme Court to stay its redistricting ruling

Virginia Democrats filed a spelling-error-ridden motion on Friday asking the Virginia Supreme Court to stay its latest ruling. Earlier Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked a heavily […]

Jeffries still confident Democrats will take back House after Virginia redistricting ruling

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) expressed confidence on Saturday that Democrats can still win back the House of Representatives, despite a recent redistricting loss in Virginia.  “We’re going to take back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries told MS NOW’s Ali Velshi. “We’re going to continue to make clear to the American people…

Virginia Supreme Court ruling poses a serious threat to democracy: experts

Virginia's Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Friday that the state's Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot authorizing mid-decade redistricting. Justice D. Arthur Kelsey wrote, “This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” striking down the narrowly approved measure enacted two weeks earlier in response to gerrymandering in GOP-led states. President Donald Trump hailed the decision as a "huge win for the Republican Party." "The decision overturns the will of voters for technical reasons and gives Republicans a leg up for the 2026 midterms," warned Democracy Docket on Bluesky. "The decision marks a significant and terrifying moment in our democracy as the court allowed an election to be cancelled after its completion." Democratic Virginia delegates criticized the decision as undermining redistricting reform efforts and questioned the court's impartiality, given lawmakers' reappointment authority over justices.Watch the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.

Appalled NY Times writer hits Dems for rolling over after 'absurd' Virginia court decision

A Virginia Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a voter-approved redistricting referendum has set a dangerous new precedent — and the Democrats whose voters were disenfranchised are barely putting up a fight, according to a scathing new analysis.Last month, Virginia voters approved a new congressional map that would have left Republicans with a single safe seat in the southwest of the state. It was part of a broader Democratic response to Trump-backed gerrymandering efforts nationwide. On Friday, in a 4-3 decision along partisan lines, the state's highest court threw the whole thing out, The New York Times' Jamelle Bouie wrote.The ruling hinged on a definition. Virginia Republicans argued the first legislative vote on the amendment happened too close to the election because early voting had already begun. The court agreed, broadening the legal definition of "election" to include the entire early voting period — a move the dissent called "in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election."He then blasted the local Democrats who seemed to roll over and accept the decision."Key Virginia Democrats quickly acquiesced to the decision," he wrote. "Don Scott, the speaker of the House of Delegates, said, 'We respect the decision of the Supreme Court,' while Gov. Abigail Spanberger said that she was 'disappointed' but didn’t challenge the ruling or the court’s authority."This is a mistake."To start, the ruling is absurd. As the dissent notes, 'The majority has 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 dissent didn't stop there, Bouie wrote. The majority's new definition, it argued, "creates a causality paradox: An election is a process that begins with early voting, but early voting must precede an election by 45 days." The result, the dissent concluded, is "an infinite voting loop that appears to have no established beginning, only a definitive end: Election Day."The practical consequences extend beyond redistricting. Virginia's constitution bars courts from pulling voters into judicial proceedings "during the time of holding any election." Under the majority's newly expanded definition, courts "could not mandate that voters attend trials in virtually any capacity, other than as a criminal defendant" for the entire duration of any election — a result that would throw the state's judicial system into chaos.Making the ruling harder to defend, the court had an opportunity to halt the referendum process earlier this year and declined. Invalidating the result only after voters approved it, the analysis notes, suggests "the law here was less important than the politics."The Democratic response has drawn as much criticism as the ruling itself. House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott said simply that Democrats "respect the decision of the Supreme Court." Gov. Abigail Spanberger called herself "disappointed" but stopped well short of challenging the court's authority.Columnist Jamelle Bouie, writing in the New York Times, called that posture "a mistake" — and went further, questioning the court's authority to void a sovereign act of the people in the first place."On what basis can the State Supreme Court, a creature of that Constitution, invalidate a sovereign decision of the whole people?" Bouie wrote. "The court may have the right to say what the law is, but this doesn't extend to a veto over the people's right to change the fundamental rules of their political system."Bouie reached back to the founding era to make the point, citing Pennsylvania jurist and Constitutional Convention delegate James Wilson, who argued that "the supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power remains in the people" and that "the people may change the Constitutions whenever and however they please. This is a right of which no positive institution can ever deprive them."It was under that same theory, Bouie noted, that Americans scrapped the Articles of Confederation in favor of the Constitution itself.The ruling lands against a backdrop of rapid democratic erosion, he wrote. The Supreme Court last week gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, opening the door for Republican-led Southern states to erase majority-minority districts. Tennessee's Republican governor just signed a map dismantling the state's only majority-Black congressional district. And Indiana lawmakers who refused to go along with Trump's redistricting push lost their primaries, demonstrating the president's grip on Republican state politics."Democrats must meet the moment," Bouie concluded. "Or move over for people who will."

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Today in Supreme Court History: May 9, 1974

5/9/1974: Resolution to impeach President Nixon introduced in the House of Representatives. On 7/24/1974, the Supreme Court would decide U.S.… The post Today in Supreme Court History: May 9, 1974 appeared first on Reason.com.

Error-prone Virginia Dems ask state Supreme Court to stay its redistricting ruling

Virginia Democrats filed a spelling-error-ridden motion on Friday asking the Virginia Supreme Court to stay its latest ruling. Earlier Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked a heavily […]

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