CASE SUMMARY

On August 13, 2021, several Virginia voters and a Virginia State Senator filed a petition with the Virginia Supreme Court challenging the Virginia General Assembly’s redistricting criteria statute as unconstitutional. Petitioners alleged the General Assembly lacked authority to pass the redistricting criteria statute, which was enacted as the Virginia Redistricting Commission constitutional amendments were being submitted to Virginia voters for approval, since the redistricting commission amendments prescribed the state’s criteria and standards for redistricting. They also alleged the statute’s criteria requiring incarcerated individuals to be reallocated to their prior home addresses would result in malapportioned districts in violation of the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions’ equal population requirements; its minority voting protections and standards violated the Virginia Constitution’s anti-discrimination provision and went beyond the scope of the federal Voting Rights Act; and its partisan gerrymandering prohibition and definitions for “compact” and “contiguous” conflicted with the Virginia Constitution’s redistricting criteria. They sought a writ of mandamus directing Virginia’s Redistricting Commission to follow only the redistricting criteria in the Virginia Constitution and a permanent injunction barring the statutory redistricting criteria from being implemented in future redistricting cycles.

  • On September 22, 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court dismissed the petition on the grounds no relief was available to the petitioners. It explained a writ of mandamus could not be imposed against the Commission since there was no action they had failed to take, a writ of prohibition was not available in this case since no judicial body was involved, and in an original jurisdiction action like this the Court’s authority to issue a permanent injunction was constitutionally restricted.

CASE LIBRARY

Supreme Court of Virginia - No. 210770