Virginia’s restrictive certiorari was blocked as the judge held SCOVA in contempt

Virginia’s redistricting battle heads to the state’s highest court Thursday after a red-district judge who tried to reject the “yes” field’s challenge to the certification process on Wednesday.

The situation created a conflict between the judge who halted the certification and the state Supreme Court, which allowed the survey to continue while the challenges were reviewed. Virginia Republicans are urging the courts to respond to their challenge to the poll, in which voters approved 51%-49% and are expected to redraw the state’s districts to give Democrats a 10-1 majority in the House. GOP officials say the vote tallying process was illegal, and the pressure is on to keep all the Republican-held House seats they can as the US midterm elections quickly approach and the Republican majority in Congress hangs in the balance.

“[On Tuesday] “The people of Virginia have seen exactly what happens when a misleading, flawed question is put on the ballot,” said Senate Minority Leader Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, to Fox News Digital. The case is pending in the courts, but the bottom line is clear: Virginians deserve the best.”

The Supreme Court of Virginia (SCOVA) in March suspended an earlier ruling by Tazewell County District Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr., clearing the way for the review to continue while making clear that it had not ruled on the merits. Hurley issued another ruling late Wednesday, declaring the ballot language unconstitutional and blocking the approval of the results.

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An official source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that SCOVA won’t play ball on the matter and instead will continue its lawsuit and may charge Hurley. However, the verification of the election is now on hold despite Thursday’s SCOVA filing deadline.

Shortly after the ruling, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, a Democrat who beat GOP incumbent Jason Miyares in November, said his office would “immediately file an appeal.”

“As I said last night, the voters of Virginia have spoken, and an activist judge should not have the power to vote on the people’s vote.” Jones said in a statement.

Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) chairman Jeff Ryer told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday that the party is directly involved in a case before the Richmond District Court challenging the new maps.

According to the RPV statement, that case is titled RNC v. VA State Board of Elections, and a decision on any order prohibiting the new maps is expected next week.

Koski v. RNC and another case, Scott v. McDougle, challenged the allegedly misleading ballot language and procedures that led to the redrawing of the map and the election itself.

Reps. Morgan Griffith and Ben Cline, R-Va., joined the RNC in its Koski lawsuit, which focused in part on a state law requiring “intervening elections” to be held before the polls go to voters and argued that early voting that begins before the polling process begins renders the vote “void.”

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McDougle’s lawsuit alleges that lawmakers improperly used a former special session called then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin to proceed with the referendum, among other procedural violations – a claim that goes to the heart of whether the program itself was constitutional.

Hurley endorsed McDougle on Jan. 27 before SCOVA stepped in after the Democratic Alliance’s request on Feb. 13 to move the election forward, but said he would still review the merits of that case.

Former U.S. Attorney John Fishwick Jr., of Roanoke-based Western District of Virginia, told Fox News Digital that the Virginia Supreme Court issued its postponement in hopes that voters would vote “no” and withdraw any necessary legal action.

“Now there is white heat in this Court but there are strong arguments that the Legislature did not follow its own rules when it passed this proposed amendment,” said Fishwick predicting a quick decision.

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State Sen. Ryan McDougle, R-Hanover, delivers remarks on the floor of the Virginia Senate regarding a proposed mid-decade redistricting amendment during the General Assembly session Tuesday, January 27, 2026 in Richmond, Virginia. (Shaban Athuman/VPM News)

Del. Wren Williams, R-Stuart, a lawmaker who allowed counties to reject election preparations until SCOVA overturned Hurley’s decision, said the poll was illegal and the results should be overturned.

“There are major constitutional issues with this program that we are going to start with,” said Williams in a special interview. “There was a case in 1952 where Arlington threw out its own referendum. And in this case, people can say that the voters decided all they wanted, but they didn’t decide based on the system we have in the Constitution.”

Williams said shortly before Hurley’s decision that everything was essentially “parked” at SCOVA in Richmond, awaiting assembly and sentencing.

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A Virginia welcome sign is placed in the grass near the Lee Highway, Key Bridge, and George Washington Memorial Parkway in Rosslyn, Arlington County, Va. (Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Williams said it was clear that the election was made to focus more on President Donald Trump than the voters of Virginia.

That assertion could help the case of Reps. Rob Wittman and John McGuire, R-Va., challenged the Democrats’ “restorative justice” language describing the referendum at the ballot box.

Ryer said the Wittman and McGuire case has been merged with the Koski-RNC case.

He remains optimistic about all cases, and he promised that no matter what, RPV will have candidates for all 11 seats, redistricting or not; he calls Tuesday’s vote an encouraging sign.

“This is the best performance for anything Republican in the state since the 2021 election and I think it shows that Virginia is still a purple state,” Ryer said, as the results showed a 12-point swing to the right from Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears in November.

House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, added that rural Virginia has come out in force to try to end the Washington areas.

“We are still fighting. We are fighting in the courts. We think we will win in the courts. The language was very misleading. They did not follow the rules they were supposed to follow. Many mistakes happened during this process. So we feel free to move on to the next stage,” he said.

Democrats have maintained that the results of the election will stand after Hurley’s decision and court work that began in SCOVA on Thursday, with “Ready for Hillary” founder Adam Parkhomenko saying on X that “Virginia voters have spoken. MAGA is lost. And now a corrupt Republican judge is trying to override the will of the people because they don’t like the outcome.”

If the lawsuits fail, many opponents of redistricting still have faith.

An approved referendum could lead to a 10-1 Democratic victory in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from its current 6-5 edge, if the court doesn’t strike it down. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

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Del. Delores Oates, R-Front Royal, said in a statement that the “YES” caucus did not get “mandate” and that the new 10-1 map may be a sign.

—Isaiah 10:1 [says] Woe to those who make unjust laws; to those who issue oppressive proclamations.

“Stop looking at Zillow and start planning for November,” Oates said. “We live and fight for Virginia.”

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Oliver and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.