(CNN) — Democratic officials in Virginia asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate a congressional map that would benefit their party ahead of this year’s midterm elections, the latest map drawing appeal to reach the high court amid a flurry of mid-decade redistricting.
The emergency appeal follows a decision from the state Supreme Court last week that voided Democrats’ attempt to redraw Virginia’s US House map via an April referendum in a way that would help Democrats pick up four additional seates. The Democrats are asking the US Supreme Court to effectively put that order on hold for this year’s midterm election.
The decision, the officials said, was “deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the nation.”
The US Supreme Court is already deeply enmeshed in a flood of redistricting taking place in states across the country as both parties seek to eke an advantage out of House boundaries in the fall election. Several southern states have moved to redraw their maps following a blockbuster decision in late April that severely weakened the scope of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Virginia’s redistricting was seen by Democrats as a way to offset the advantage Republicans have picked up from that effort. But the state’s highest court ruled that the process state officials used to create the referendum violated the state constitution.
“The irreparable harm resulting from the Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision is profound and immediate,” Democrats told the US Supreme Court on Monday. “By forcing the commonwealth to conduct its congressional elections using districts different from those adopted by the General Assembly pursuant to a constitutional amendment the people just ratified, the Supreme Court of Virginia has deprived voters, candidates, and the commonwealth of their right to the lawfully enacted congressional districts.”
The redistricting in Virginia would have given Democrats the chance to win as many as four more seats, potentially reducing the state’s GOP representation to a single district.
The-CNN-Wire
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