A Tazewell County, Virginia judge has put a temporary stop to the state’s new redistricting measures, approved by voters in a slim, 51% to 49% margin on Tuesday night, and said that the plans cannot go into effect ahead of the 2026 midterm congressional elections. The judge ruled that the referendum was unconstitutional and newly minted AG Jay Jones vowed to appeal. The appeal was brought by the Republican National Committee against the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections.

The referendum would permit the state legislature to redraw the congressional districts and the proposed map, which was not available on the ballot, would have seen the redistricting away of four GOP-held seats in rural Virginia. The map, which some have referred to as a lobster because of its wildly gerrymandered shape, would see five congressional districts originate in the same, small, populous Democrat area.

After the appeal from the RNC, Jones said “My office will immediately file an appeal in the Court of Appeals. As I said last night, Virginia voters have spoke, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote. We look forward to defending the outcome of last night’s election in court.”

Former Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli said of the legal process over the referendum, “This is going to go very fast. I think we’re going to have a final ruling in May, best guess… I’d be betting on ‘no’ in the courts..

In a final judgment from the Tazewell County judge, the ruling reads that the court “grants final judgement in Plaintiffs’ favor on all counts of their Verified Complaint…”

The court states that the referendum “violated House Joint Resolution 6001, and any action taken thereon is an invalid expansion of the General Assembly’s call to the Governor for the 2024 Special Session,” that it “violated Va. Const[itution] art XII, §1, as there has not been an ensuing general election for the House of Delegates, and such ensuing general election cannot occur until 2027…”

The judge also takes issue with the framing of the question as intentionally misleading, saying “the ballot language proposes in HB 1384 submits to the voter a flagrantly misleading question to the voters, and because the ballot language did not accurately describe the proposed amendment as it was passed in the General Assembly.” 

The question as framed asked voters to answer “yes” or “no” to the following: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”

The judge states that the text “violates the Form of Laws Clause of Va. Const. art. IV, §12 both because it embraces more than one object and because its title does not accurately describe its subject matter.”

The findings state that “all Plaintiffs have standing to obtain the declaratory and permanent injunctive relief sought in the Verified Complaint” and “that the equities weigh in favor of permanent injunctive relief, that Plaintiffs have no adequate remedy at all, and that Plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed absent permanent injunctive relief because of the numerous violations of the constitutional amendment process…”

“Having found that the Plaintiffs are entitled to permanent injunctive relief, the Court permanently enjoins Defendants and their successors from certifying the results of the April 21, 2026, special election.”

Virginia’s current congressional apportionment has been called mathematically perfect, with 6 Democrat and 5 Republican seats. The redistricting measure, brought by new Governor Abigail Spanberger after she ran an election vowing not to redistrict, is in response to Texas having redrawn their districts. In essence, Virginia conservatives are being punished by Virginia Democrats for changes Texas made to their maps, under their laws.