Supreme Court is death knell for Virginia's Democratic-friendly congressional maps

The U.S. Supreme Court Andrew Harnik/ hide caption toggle caption Andrew Harnik/ The U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to allow Virginia to use a new congressional map that favored Democrats in all but one of the state's U.S. House seats. The map was a key part of Democrats' effort to counter the Republican redistricting wave set off by President Trump. The new map was drawn by Democrats and approved by Virginia voters in an April referendum . But on May 8, the Supreme Court of Virginia in a 4-to-3 vote declared the referendum, and by extension the new map, null and void because lawmakers failed to follow the proper procedures to get the issue on the ballot, violating the state constitution. Virginia Democrats and the state's attorney general then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking to put into effect the map approved by the voters, which yields four more likely Democratic congressional seats. In their emergency application , they argued the Virginia Supreme Court was "deeply mistaken" in its decision on "critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation." Further, they asserted the decision "overrode the will of the people" by ordering Virginia to "conduct its election with the congressional districts that the people rejected." Republican legislators countered that it would be improper for the U.S. …