Reading The Virginia Supreme Court Tea Leaves
Grasping at straws. Reading the tea leaves. Wishful thinking.
These are the parlor games court watchers are playing in Virginia as the commonwealth’s Supreme Court justices mull one of the most consequential decisions of their careers.
The seven justices will decide if the recent redistricting referendum, the one restoring gerrymandering to Virginia, will stand.
It shouldn’t. And the entire country is watching this travesty unfold.
Democrats, who control all three branches of government, have played cute with a number of Virginia’s laws in their breathless attempt to stage a special election in April and transform a 6-5 Democrat state to a solidly Dem state with a 10-1 congressional delegation.
Everything from the loaded language of the ballot question to the timing of votes was an exercise in shameless chicanery.
For example, Virginia law requires that constitutional questions be put to the voters only after the matter is approved by the General Assembly in two distinct sessions, separated by a General Assembly election. The hastily crafted return-to-gerrymandering question was voted on by legislators in October 2025, after early voting had begun. Certainly this violated the spirit if not the letter of Virginia law.
How ironic will it be if early voting - a device that Dems love to pad ballot totals - craters the referendum.
Constitutional scholar Ilya Shapiro called Virginia Democrat’s shenanigans “the most blatantly unconstitutional (under the state constitution) thing I’ve seen in quite some time. And I find many things to be unconstitutional.”
Those who watched Monday’s one-hour oral arguments were left puzzled. It was impossible to read the tea leaves, they said. Most members of the court remained silent, while only three of the seven justices posed repeated questions.
But on Tuesday the high court sent a signal that should worry Democrats and ignite hope in those of us who voted against the new districts. The court unceremoniously smacked down Attorney General Jay Jones who asked the justices to lift a lower court injunction that prevents the referendum results from being certified this Friday.
If the court had granted Jones’ wish, the Dems would be smugly doing their happy dance.
So today, I’m reading the tea leaves and dusting off my dancing shoes.
