Virginia supreme court strikes down new congressional maps in win for Republicans

Virginia’s supreme court on Friday ruled that the state cannot use new congressional maps approved by voters to help Democrats gain as many as four new seats in the US House of Representatives, handing Republicans a major win ahead of November’s midterm elections. The court found that the state’s general assembly did not follow the appropriate constitutional procedure in approving the map, which voters then passed in a referendum last month. “This constitutional violation incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy,” the court wrote in its decision. The ruling is a setback for Democrats’ efforts nationwide to counter gerrymanders approved by Republican-led states that may oust Democratic House representatives and boost the odds Donald Trump’s allies retain their majority in Congress’s lower chamber in the November midterm elections.