U.S. Supreme Court Declines “Emergency” Bid to Reinstate Virginia Redistricting Maps

“Finally! This referendum is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone. This is an ex-referendum. Attorney General Jones has spent weeks insisting this referendum was still alive, but after the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling — and now the failure of emergency relief at SCOTUS — the referendum is unquestionably dead. What Attorney General Jones never wanted to admit is that the referendum was DOA because it was unconstitutional from the beginning.” — Ken Cuccinelli, National Chairman, Election Transparency Initiative, and former Virginia Attorney General

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  | LINK

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to revive Virginia Democrats’ unconstitutional “ex-referendum” ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Arlington, VA — May 15, 2026 —The United States Supreme Court has declined to grant emergency relief sought by Virginia Democrats and the Commonwealth in the ongoing redistricting litigation, leaving intact the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision striking down the Commonwealth’s redistricting referendum as unconstitutional.

The emergency appeal sought to revive a referendum already declared unconstitutional in Violation of the Virginia (not federal) Constitution by Virginia’s highest court, in order to gerrymander Virginia’s congressional maps to dramatically reshape Virginia’s congressional delegation via the 2026 midterm elections.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled 4-3 that the Democrat General Assembly violated Article XII, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution by advancing the constitutional amendment process after early voting had already begun in Virginia’s 2025 statewide elections.

The Virginia Supreme Court found that approximately 1.3 million Virginians had already voted before lawmakers passed the amendment proposal for the first time on October 31, 2025, meaning those voters were denied the constitutionally required opportunity to evaluate the proposed amendment when selecting members of the House of Delegates.

“The constitutional defect here was both obvious and fatal from the beginning,” said former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, National Chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative (ETI). “You cannot allow hundreds of thousands of Virginians to begin voting in an election and then pretend afterward that those same voters had a constitutional opportunity to consider an amendment proposal that had not even passed yet.”

Cuccinelli said the refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene further reinforces the strength and credibility of the Virginia Supreme Court’s opinion.

“This was not judicial activism. Quite the opposite,” Cuccinelli said. “The Virginia Supreme Court applied the Constitution exactly as written despite enormous political pressure and national implications. Even the U.S. Supreme Court declined to breathe new life into the long-dead referendum.”

The case drew national attention not only because of the congressional stakes, but also because of subsequent reports that some Virginia Democrats discussed lowering the mandatory retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices after the ruling in order to potentially replace members of the Court’s majority.

“As a former member of the Virginia Senate, I can say unequivocally that even entertaining discussions about restructuring the Court because legislators dislike a constitutional ruling is unconscionable,” Cuccinelli said. “That kind of conduct undermines public confidence in an independent judiciary and sends a dangerous message that constitutional rulings are acceptable only when politicians approve of the outcome.”

The ruling leaves Virginia’s current bipartisan court-drawn congressional maps in place for the 2026 election cycle.

Key Links

• SCOTUS Order
• Virginia Supreme Court opinion
• SCOTUSblog coverage of the emergency appeal
• Cuccinelli post-decision press briefing carried in full by C-SPAN

Media Availability

Ken Cuccinelli is available for television, radio, podcast, and print interviews regarding the ruling and its implications nationwide.

Members of the media may also submit interview requests at:
https://electiontransparency.org/contact/

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About the Election Transparency Initiative

ETI works nationwide to advance commonsense election reforms that protect the integrity of the vote and strengthen public trust in election outcomes by enhancing transparency, accountability, and confidence in American elections. Ken Cuccinelli serves as National Chairman of ETI. He previously served as Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and as Attorney General of Virginia.

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