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In a 4–3 vote on Friday, the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the gerrymandered electoral map that Virginia voters approved just a few weeks ago. This new map was projected to give Democrats four additional congressional seats to counterbalance Republican gerrymanders in other states like Texas. The court’s opinion brings back Virginia’s earlier map, overturning the balancing act that millions of Virginians voted for. Worst of all, the decision creates a nearly unfathomable legal double standard between hamstrung blue states and rule-breaking red states that risks one-sided distortion of American democracy in these midterms and beyond.

Last month, Virginia voters approved a counter-gerrymandering ballot measure that allowed for the creation of a congressional map in their state which would have rewritten the district shapes to benefit Democrats during the 2026 midterms. But Virginia did not gerrymander in a vacuum. This measure was a direct response to President Donald Trump’s mandate that Texas engage in an unusual mid-decade redistricting to write five Democratic Texas seats out of existence, a process which began in August of 2025 and was finally blessed by the Supreme Court just last week, despite strong evidence that Texas’ gerrymander explicitly used race to remove five majority-minority districts.

Even though Virginia voters approved the ballot measure, Republican Congress members in Virginia sued to undo that vote. They argued that the Virginia Legislature failed to follow the proper procedures in approving the new map. More specifically, they claimed that the Virginia Constitution prevents amendments unless there is an intervening election in between the first time a proposed amendment is introduced and passed in the Legislature and the second time. (Virginia’s rules requires the Virginia General Assembly to vote on a constitutional amendment twice before sending it to voters.) And here, the Virginia Democrats introduced the proposed map on Oct. 31, 2025, days before the state’s........

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