Update Today
Michael Farris, the lawyer who started the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, lives in Virginia and wrote this today on Facebook:
“Virginia Supreme Invalidates Partisan Gerrymandering Vote
This morning the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled that the process used by the Virginia General Assembly to push through its proposed constitutional amendment violated the procedural requirements of the Virginia Constitution.
Our Constitution requires that a proposed amendment must be 1. Approved twice by the General Assembly and 2. that there be an intervening general election between those two votes.
In this instance early voting had already started and 1.3 million Virginians had voted before the legislature approved the gerrymandering amendment.
The court held that by voting for gerrymandering after 1.3 million votes had been cast, this deprived those voters the opportunity to vote for or against candidates based on their views on the gerrymandering measure.
Depriving Virginians of meaningful votes is the entire purpose of this measure.
Democrats believe in democracy and the rule of law except when those ideas get in the way of their agenda.
The rule of law prevailed today.
Because this is entirely based on the state constitution this case cannot be appealed to the US Supreme Court. Today’s ruling is final.”
Apologize to anybody who identifies as a Democrat for his generalized remark. I am sure he meant the state leaders and not any individual voter.