If at first you can’t succeed with legislation, try litigation. At least that’s the motto of the Democrats.
When Democrats lost the election last November, causing the Senate to be 20-20 in party split, with the Republican lieutenant governor as a tie-breaker, Democrats sued to prevent the GOP from organizing the Senate. Their lawsuit failed.
Now that Congressional Districts were passed by the General Assembly last week, after a year-long impasse in 2011 (largely due to state Democrats and not congressional ones who actually endorsed the passed plan), what have Democrats done?
You guessed it. Sued.
But this time Democrats will have a chance to soldier on with the case, a circuit court judge ruled yesterday.
Judge Richard D. Taylor wrote, “If the Court concurs with the Defendants’ proposition that the word ‘shall’ in Article II, Section 6, is discretionary, then the General Assembly will have limitless discretion to reapportion Virginia’s electoral districts in any year it chooses.”
Taylor is writing of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s argument that shall is directory in nature and not mandatory.
“Given the impending elections and deadlines associated with the federal Voting Rights Act, my office is seeking immediate intervention by the Supreme Court of Virginia,” said Cuccinelli. “We are filing a writ of prohibition, seeking a ruling that the circuit court’s ruling exceeds its jurisdiction. We are also seeking an immediate appeal of the order and a stay of further proceedings in the circuit court until the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled.”
The attorney general’s office claims that because the General Assembly has passed – and the governor has signed -the congressional redistricting plan, the court can only act if passing the redistricting bill was beyond the legislature’s authority.
“Because the General Assembly clearly has such authority under both the United States and Virginia constitutions, the Richmond Circuit Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear the plaintiffs’ claims,” said Brian Gottstein, spokesperson for the attorney general.
