Democrats have filed an emergency appeal with the US Supreme Court to have their redrawn congressional maps in Virginia reinstated after the state Supreme Court found them unconstitutional last week.
“A stay is warranted because the decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia is deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation,” read the appeal on Monday.
“First, it predicated its interpretation of the Virginia Constitution on a grave misreading of federal law, which expressly fixes a single day for the ‘election’ of Representatives and Delegates to Congress,” Democrats argued.
“Where a state court’s decision on purportedly state-law grounds was ‘interwoven with the federal law,’ this Court may intervene to ensure that the state court’s decision complies with federal law.”
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Democrats did not follow the required constitutional procedures in advancing the voter-approved amendment redrawing the state’s congressional maps that would have potentially added four new Democratic seats in the US Congress.
The state’s high court upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the amendment from being certified and implemented based on the articles of the Virginia Constitution, which required that the proposed amendment be approved by the legislature twice before going to voters at the polls.
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‘Practical realities’
Some top state Democrats expressed little hope that the appeal would affect this November’s congressional midterm elections and are already shifting their focus to waging campaigns in the state’s existing districts.
“Since we can’t control anything other than mobilising and organising, then let’s mobilise and organise and turn our anger into fuel for that,” Democratic Representative Jennifer McClellan said.
