Panel of Federal Judges Declares Gerrymandered 3rd District Unconstitutional

The GOP approach to winning elections is to (i) disenfranchise as many voters as possible who might vote for Democrats and (ii) shamelessly gerrymander districts to protect Republicans.  The Virginia GOP has carefully implemented these nefarious methods.  The husband and I used to live in Virginia's 2nd congressional district until the GOP controlled House of Delegates redrew the lines of the district to protect GOP incumbent Scott Rigell.  Then suddenly, we found ourselves in the 3rd congressional district which had been carefully drawn to pack blacks into a single district and thereby improve the chances of GOP candidates in surrounding districts.  The map above shows the ridiculous boundaries of the 3rd district as redrawn.   Now, a panel of federal judges has declared the district as redrawn to be unconstitutional and ordered the General Assembly to revise it by next spring.  Sadly, that will not benefit voters in elections next month.  Both the Virginian Pilot and the Washington Post have details.  Here are highlights from the Pilot:

In a decision with potential implications for Virginia's congressional delegation, three federal judges ruled Tuesday that the lines of the state's 3rd Congressional District were drawn in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The panel of judges allowed next month's election to proceed under the existing district lines, but ordered the General Assembly to redraw them by April 1, in time for the next congressional election in 2016.

The 3rd District is the only one of Virginia's 11 congressional districts with an African American majority. It has been represented since 1992 by Rep. Bobby Scott, a Newport News Democrat who is unopposed in the Nov. 4 election.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges agreed with the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed a year ago that the congressional redistricting plan adopted by the Republican-controlled Assembly in 2012 amounted to racial gerrymandering, packing African American voters into Scott's district and leaving adjoining districts safer for their Republican incumbents.

Moreover, the judges said, the 3rd District is marked by "an odd shape and a composition of a disparate chain of communities, predominantly African American, loosely connected by the James River."

The district, which stretches from Norfolk to Richmond, is the least-compact district in Virginia and splits more city and county boundaries than any other district, the judges said.

In order to comply with the panel's ruling, the legislature might have to pull some Democratic-leaning voters out of Scott's district and redistribute them to surrounding districts, possibly creating less-hospitable electoral terrain for Republican Reps. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake and Scott Rigell of Virginia Beach.

The Washington Post notes in part as follows:

Michael Kelly, a spokesman for Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), said state lawyers were “reviewing the decision and assessing its impact and how best to move forward.” The attorney general’s office, in consultation with the Department of Elections, will decide whether to appeal, he said.

But there was broad agreement Tuesday that, if the decision is not appealed, its impact could ripple across several districts in the state. Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report tweeted this on Tuesday: “Depending on how VA’s map is redrawn for 2016, the big loser here could be #VA04 Rep. Randy Forbes (R).”

Republican reaction to the ruling was muted; a spokesman for Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell (Stafford) declined to comment. But privately, some members of the GOP conceded that the redrawn map would probably make at least one and possibly several heavily GOP districts competitive for Democrats. If the state doesn’t appeal, the General Assembly would address the process when it reconvenes in January.

Republicans and Democrats would be taking a big risk if they did not find a way to come to an agreement. If the GOP-controlled legislature did not pass a plan that McAuliffe would be willing to sign, more uncertainty could ensue: A veto from McAuliffe would send the map to the courts for the judges to redraw.

 Sadly, the Virginia GOP has become a coven of religious extremists and open racists that opposes rights for minorities of all stripes and which seeks to infuse Christofascist religious beliefs into the laws of the Commonwealth.  To truly move forward, Virginia needs to see the Virginia GOP as it currently exists wither and die.