Virginia
Related: About this forumHow Virginia Democrats can retire the state Supreme Court
On Friday night, law professor Quinn Yeargain, a longtime contributor to The Downballot, was struck by an inspired idea. After the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated the April election greenlighting a new congressional map, supporters of the new districts were casting about for ways to overcome that ruling.
Quinns solution was brilliantly elegant. The state Constitution empowers lawmakers to set the mandatory retirement ages for judges, so why not just lower that age and immediately get an all-new Supreme Court? The Downballot rushed out a piece explaining Quinns proposal in detail, and it took off like wildfire.
It also prompted a lot of excellent questions. To answer them, Quinn and David Nir, the publisher of The Downballot, hopped on an impromptu livestream on Saturday evening. Among the topics they address:
- Why we proposed such a dramatic lowering of the retirement age.
- How quickly Virginia Democrats could make all this happen (preview: very).
- Why other efforts to address the Supreme Courts ruling are either unlikely to work or cant get deployed quickly enough.
- Why Virginia Democrats cant simply ignore the court the way that Ohio Republicans did with their Supreme Court several years ago.
https://www.the-downballot.com/p/how-virginia-democrats-can-retire
LetMyPeopleVote
(181,653 posts)I personally believe that given the ruling by Alito and other GOP gerrymandering, the steps outlined here are appropriate.
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/10/us/politics/democrats-virginia-plans-gerrymandering.html?unlocked_article_code=1.hVA.KzAI.Wf17nRa9PSjl&smid=nytcore-ios-share
Any plans to enact a new congressional map for this years midterm elections would require action in the next few days. In a court filing last month, Steven Koski, the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said any changes to the maps after Tuesday, May 12, will significantly increase the risk of his agency being unable to properly prepare for the states scheduled Aug. 4 primary election......
One key to the plan would be having Democrats in Richmond lower the mandatory retirement age for state Supreme Court justices, an idea that began circulating among state lawmakers and members of Congress after a column proposing a version of the idea was published on Friday night in The Downballot, a progressive newsletter.
Ms. Spanberger would have to sign off on any legislation that lowered the judicial retirement age. She has not been briefed on the proposal, the people involved in the discussion or briefed on it said. Her spokeswoman, Libby Wiet, declined to comment.
The first step in the process, as discussed on the delegations call, would be to invoke a January ruling by a circuit court judge in Tazewell County, Va., that said the 2026 constitutional amendment effort to redraw the maps was invalid because county officials did not post notice of it at courthouses and other public locations three months before a general election.
Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat who represents Loudoun County, Va., said in an interview that he supported doing whatever was necessary to preserve the map voters approved in last months referendum including replacing the states Supreme Court justices.
Everyone has got to have a strong stomach right now; this is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are timid, said Mr. Subramanyam, who was on the Saturday call. We have Republican states ignoring their constitutions and interrupting early voting and ignoring their Supreme Courts all together. We know based on that, Republicans would explore every single option possible to move this forward.....
In an interview on Friday night, before his Saturday meeting with Virginia lawmakers, Mr. Jeffries said he was exploring how to unravel this decision.
Its an all-hands-on-deck moment, and its unprecedented in American history as far as we can tell that an actual election has been overturned by a handful of unelected judges, Mr. Jeffries said. Were not going to step back, we will continue to fight back.
This is a very aggressive plan which could backfire. However, this plan may be necessary to stop trump's gerrymandering.