Virginia Democrats Desperately Try to Save Redistricting Power Grab

Nobody, certainly not me, expected pro-abortion Democrats to whom power is everything would matter of factly accept the Virginia Supreme Court decision that correctly tossed out the blatantly unconstitutional April 21^st referendum that would’ve netted the Democrats four additional congressional seats.

Immediately after the court’s May 8th decision, Jay Jones, the Democrat attorney general, accused the ruling of putting “politics over the rule of law” and issued a statement ending with “we are evaluating every legal pathway forward to defend the will of the people and protect the integrity of Virginia’s elections.”

Last Friday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries upped the ante, saying ominously that “The decision to overturn an entire election is unprecedented and an undemocratic action that cannot stand.”

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Law School, columnist, and author.

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He observed the lengths to which Democrats seem prepared to go;

After the Virginia Supreme Court rejected the results of the recent Democratic effort to effectively wipe out Republican representation in the state, Democratic pundits and activists have latched onto a proposal by Michigan State Law Professor Quinn Yeargain to gut the court by forcing the retirement of the current justices, appointing liberal activists, and then reversing the opinion. It is extremely telling that some are pushing the raw muscle play to retake power in Washington, particularly in light of the calls to pack the United States Supreme Court once the party is back in control.

The panic is clearly spreading. On Sunday, Reid J. Epstein wrote story for the New York Times under the headline “A Private Call Reveals Democrats’ Desperation Over Tossing of Map.” The subhead is even more alarming: “A conversation involving House members from Virginia and the top House Democrat reflected the fury and desperation that has gripped the party after Friday’s ruling in the state.”

The first three sentences let the reader know the lengths to which some Democrats are willing to go:

Democrats are struggling to respond to a major redistricting setback in Virginia, with some party leaders discussing an audacious and possibly far-fetched idea for trying to restore a congressional map voided by the court but showing little indication they have a clear plan.

During a private discussion on Saturday that included Democratic House members from Virginia and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, the lawmakers vented anger at their defeat at the Virginia Supreme Court, spoke about a collective determination to flip two or three Republican-held seats under the existing map and discussed a bank-shot proposal to redraw the congressional lines anyway, according to three people who participated in the call and two others who were briefed on it.

They did not land on a specific course forward, and Mr. Jeffries and the other members of Congress agreed to consult with their lawyers about the most prudent way to proceed, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private talk.

“It’s an all-hands-on-deck moment, and it’s unprecedented in American history as far as we can tell that an actual election has been overturned by a handful of unelected judges,” Mr. Jeffries said, according to Epstein. “We’re not going to step back, we will continue to fight back.”

An “Audacious and possibly far-fetched idea” plus “redraw the congressional lines anyway.” If you add to that “One key to the plan would be having Democrats in Richmond lower the mandatory retirement age for state Supreme Court justices” [Yeargain’s proposal], and you have foreshadowing of what would happen if Democrats take control of Congress in the mid-terms.

We can’t say we haven’t been warned.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. He frequently writes Today’s News and Views — an online opinion column on pro-life issues.