Virginia political expert and election law attorney Carolyn Fiddler — a William & Mary Law School graduate, Virginia voter and author of the Substack newsletter This Week in Statehouse Action — joined Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson to break down the recent ruling from the Virginia Supreme Court that invalidated the results of a statewide redistricting referendum that more than three million Virginians voted in just weeks prior. Here’s what they covered:
How Republicans used nonsensical technical arguments to overturn the will of the people
The Virginia Supreme Court declining to weigh in before the election happened
Virginia counties being out millions of dollars in election-related expenses without hope for reimbursement
The case Virginia justices cited that revealed their true motivations
Democrats’ next steps after the April election results were thrown out
A redistricting arms race that could still end up in Democrats’ favor
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‘Legal Calvinball’: Republicans’ Nonsensical Argument to Throw Out an Election
Fiddler didn’t mince words when asked whether Republicans had any legitimate legal footing for their challenge. “It was legal Calvinball,” she said, citing the fictional game from the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip in which rules are made up in the middle of the game.
“The State Supreme Court, specifically four justices on the Virginia State Supreme Court, decided that they were going to invalidate the results of this election,” Fiddler said. “And they had to get really creative to do it.”
She outlined Republicans’ three-pronged legal argument. The first centered on the definition of the word “election” itself , and whether “election day” constituted the entire election or just the final day of what is actually a broader voting window that includes early voting. The second argument was a procedural one about the scope of a special legislative session. The third leaned on a century-old law requiring constitutional amendments to be posted at every courthouse in Virginia for 90 days — a requirement tied to the state’s 1920 constitution, rather than the one that has been in effect since 1971.
Ultimately, Fiddler said, the four Republican-leaning justices latched onto the first argument and bent it to their purposes. “They decided that election is not actually the election — which is that Tuesday after Monday in November,” she said. “They decided that it includes the entire period before, during which folks have the opportunity to cast their ballot early. It’s not early voting if it’s election voting.”
The Court Had a Chance to Step In Before the Vote — And Chose Not To
One of the most damning aspects of the ruling, Fiddler argued, is that the Virginia Supreme Court had every opportunity to rule on the legality of the election before it happened — but declined to do so.
“Republicans went to their pet judge out in southwest Virginia, a guy that they had appointed who’s friends with some of the lawmakers, and he ruled the way they wanted,” she said. The case was then appealed to the state Supreme Court, which Republicans asked to block the April 21 vote entirely. The court refused.
“I am positive that at least four of those justices were just praying that the measure would fail at the ballot box so they wouldn’t have to weigh in,” Fiddler continued. “The State Supreme Court is actually, historically in Virginia, not super political. But we can’t say that about them anymore. I was frankly shocked by the ruling on so many levels.”
She confirmed that a state supreme court ruling invalidating an entire statewide election is essentially unprecedented in modern Virginia history.
Millions of Voters Were Disenfranchised and Counties Are Out Millions of Dollars
Fiddler was blunt about the human cost of the ruling. The court’s decision to retroactively invalidate the election means that approximately $5 million spent by Virginia counties to conduct the election will never be reimbursed.
“Those localities are just out of the money for no reason,” she said, noting that the financial burden falls unevenly. Wealthier regions like Northern Virginia can absorb the hit better than rural counties that depend on state revenue sharing.
More importantly, she pushed back hard on the court’s claim that early voters were somehow disenfranchised by casting ballots before the legislature completed a procedural step.
“They were saying that voters were disenfranchised because of how they decided to define ‘election,’” Fiddler said. “But also, they were totally okay with disenfranchising even more voters — 1.6 million voters — who actually voted in this election directly on these maps.”
Citing Marbury v. Madison: The Court Showing Its Hand
In her article summarizing the Virginia Supreme Court decision, Fiddler flagged a telling moment in the majority opinion — the justices’ decision to cite Marbury v. Madison, the foundational 1803 case that established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review.
“It’s the equivalent of the justices channeling [South Park character] Eric Cartman and saying, ‘Respect my authori-tye,’” she said. “It’s basically reminding everyone that we have the power to do this. The fact that you feel the need to flex like that is just very suspect.”
She added that the Virginia justices are not operating at the level of the U.S. Supreme Court — and that even the Roberts Court knows better than to lean on Marbury v. Madison as a crutch, adding: “That’s just crap.”
What Democrats Can Do — And Why It’s Complicated
Fiddler acknowledged that a lot of people in progressive circles have been asking whether Virginia Democrats could simply ignore the ruling. She said the answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.
Fiddler pointed out that because Republicans’ favored judge in Tazewell County blocked certification of the April results, the new maps were never officially implemented. Any effort to proceed as if they had would require active, affirmative steps from the Virginia Board of Elections and local registrars across the state, which Fiddler said would require “a lot of proactive ignoring.”
One option being floated is for the Democratic-controlled legislature to lower the mandatory retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices — currently set by statute at 73 — to something like 54, which would effectively remove the current court and allow Democrats to appoint a new one. But Fiddler said that path runs through Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger, who would have to sign the legislation.
“If she’s not on board with it, it’s not going to happen,” Fiddler said. “And the fact that it seems like lawmakers in Virginia are saying this is not happening — I think that’s coming from the top.” She also noted timing issues: the legislature still hasn’t passed a state budget, and with primaries already pushed back to August, the window to implement new maps for 2026 may have already closed.
How Democrats Can Still Win the Redistricting Arms Race
Fiddler observed that Republicans have been planning to interfere with the 2026 elections for months, and that the Virginia ruling is less a new template than a formalization of a playbook already in use.
“No tactic is off the table when it comes to Republicans looking to Donald Trump specifically, and his allies in the movement, doing everything they can think of to mess with elections and election results this fall,” Fiddler said.
But she also said Democrats are finally responding in kind. After initially trying to simply counter Republican redistricting moves state-by-state, Democrats are now behaving as though all restraints are off. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has already begun outreach to blue-state counterparts in Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and other states.
“Unilateral disarmament does not work,” Fiddler said. “Democrats did not come at it with the ‘all bets are off’ approach from the start. They were just trying to counter what Republicans are doing and keep it more or less equal, and that didn’t work out for them. So now Democrats are finally behaving as though all bets are off — even though they’ve been off.”
Reasons for Hope: Federal Worker Fury, Special Election Trends, and Anti-Trump Energy
Despite the frustrating ruling, Fiddler offered several reasons for optimism heading into November. She pointed to the rage of Virginia’s more than 300,000 federal workers — many of them laid off or displaced by Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative — as a powerful undercurrent that hasn’t dissipated.
“If you weren’t a federal worker who got laid off, you absolutely knew one,” she said. “They remember this, and they’re not going to forget it, and they’re going to carry that with them through November.”
She also noted that Democrats have been dramatically overperforming in special elections throughout Trump’s second term, beating Kamala Harris’s 2024 numbers by an average of 10 to 12 points. Even on the old Virginia maps, she said, Democrats have a realistic shot at picking up two congressional seats if turnout reflects the current political environment.
“The anti-Trump juice is going to be real this year,” Fiddler said. “People in the country are going to remember why they’re mad and who they’re mad at — and they’re going to show up in November.”
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