The case before the U.S. Supreme Court on partisan gerrymandering may not be directly relatable to Virginia’s Congressional, State Senate and General Assembly districts. The emergency redrawing of Virginia’s Congressional Districts last year were directed due to racial discrimination by the General Assembly, the current case is related to partisan redistricting that effectively disenfranchises 10-20 percent of aggregate state party preferences.
And the Virginia Supreme Court recently held that it would not challenge district drawing partisanship drawing by the General Assembly. But the Virginia Constitutional provisions are clear: there are to be compact, contiguous districts in Virginia. Regardless of past practices under other state Constitutions, each Virginia Constitution is to superior to legislative acts, judicial precedent and executive proclamation.
The duty of the Virginia judiciary to review acts of the legislature in light of the Virginia Constitution makes it an advocate of the people. George Wythe writing the decision at commonweal v. Caton in 1782 at the height of Virginia’s state sovereignty, confirmed that, “. . . if the whole [Virginia state] legislature, an event to be deprecated, should attempt to overleap the bounds, prescribed to them by the people [in the Virginia state Constitution], I, in administering the public justice of the country, will meet the united powers, at my seat in this tribunal; and, pointing to the constitution, will say, to them, here is the limit of your authority; and, hither, shall you go, but no further.”
Virginia political communities for the most part correspond with county boundaries and retail districts associated with shopping malls. Splits in local jurisdictions should appear at the margins. Bipartisan support for redistricting reform has succeeded in Virginia Senate bills over the last two General Assembly sessions, supported by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters in Virginia.
For additional information, see OneVirginia2021. — R. G. Zimermann