(#6298) The longer it takes for the Virginia Supreme Court to rule on redistricting the benefit goes to Democrats!

      I, Like many, are every hour looking to see if the ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court on the referendum on redistricting voted on by Virginians last April 21 has been published. It to this moment has not. Oral arguments were last Monday, 4 days ago. There were several points of contention offered by the Tazwell judge so obviously each needs to be addressed. But that isn't all. There were other lawsuits filed by republicans that are being folded into how the final decision will be adjudicated. Simply corralling all the complaints and addressing all the concerns will take a bit of time. However, there is another factor at play here and that is timing.
     The longer it takes the Virginia high court to weave the logic of their decision the more the opportunity for the new maps from the vote to stand. Even if later they are found to be unconstitutional. The reasoning here is that there is a vote about to take place that affects each district in this case. So time is critically short to getting to a decision even though it takes time to get all of the contentions correctly cured. So as I wait for the decision to come I am not overly anxious because by default the outcome may well be a good thing for democracy if the wait time is extended.
     My sense is that the high court understands this as a factor and are diligently working to complete their task of ruling one way or the other. They may have already completed their decision and are just working out the textual nuance of writing it. Yet to get to a decision they would already have the general concept of their reasoning at hand. For me I am leaning toward them still not at a final decision because they have not incorporated all the available evidence they need to rule with wise intent. If it does seem to be the case that they need much more time they could well rule that the new maps apply for this 2026 election with a decision coming later as to any future election under the new maps.