Virginia Democrats’ hyper-partisan redistricting attempt has garnered national attention, including a new lawsuit filed by the GOP. The Republican National Committee (RNC) filed its lawsuit Wednesday in the Tazewell County Circuit Court, arguing that the Democrat-controlled General Assembly violated state laws when approving an April referendum aimed at approving new congressional district maps stripping Republicans of four seats in the House of Representatives and handing Democrats a total of 10 House seats, despite registered Democrats accounting for only a little over half of Virginia voters.

The lawsuit accuses state Democrats of rushing “to ram through a constitutional amendment to redistrict Virginia,” which the RNC alleged “threatens to ruin” safeguards built into Virginia’s constitution and violates “the careful constitution-making process that the people of Virginia established.” Echoing the January ruling of Tazewell County Circuit Court Chief Judge Jack Hurley striking down the redistricting measure as illegal, the RNC argued that the General Assembly violated its own legislative rules in passing the redistricting proposal and failed to adhere to laws requiring proper public notice of pending constitutional amendments. “Nevertheless, Democrats in the General Assembly are still proceeding as if [the redistricting bill] is still valid,” the RNC charged. “Emergency relief is needed to prevent the transmission of a defective proposal for constitutional amendment to Virginia voters that violates the Commonwealth’s Constitution and an order of this Court.”

A coalition of state-level Republicans had previously filed a lawsuit to block the redistricting effort, with the case working its way to Virginia’s Supreme Court. After Hurley declared the Democrats’ bill illegal and unconstitutional, the Virginia Court of Appeals forwarded the case directly to the Supreme Court, stipulating that the matter was of such novel importance and of such urgency that the Supreme Court ought to resolve the issue immediately. The Supreme Court agreed, but set a deadline for initial briefs of April 23, two days after the April 21 referendum is scheduled to take place.

Currently, Republicans hold five of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts, while Democrats hold the other six. The ballot question to be placed before voters in April purports to “restore fairness” to Virginia’s congressional district maps, but would, the RNC argues, eliminate fairness by replacing “a nonpartisan redistricting process through an independent commission with a partisan one through a body that is made up of a majority of only one political party” and creating district maps that “unduly favor … the Democratic political party.” “If submitted to Virginia voters, a citizen could vote in favor of the proposed amendment thinking that he or she was protecting state constitutional rights when in fact the citizen was doing the exact opposite.” (Emphasis in original.)

“Virginia Democrats are trying to ram through an illegal redistricting scheme that a court has already called a blatant abuse of power,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement shared with media outlets. He accused Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) and state Democrats of “working to silence voters and lock in permanent political control. … They’re ignoring the state Constitution, misleading voters, and rushing a sham election.”

The RNC was joined by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and Reps. Ben Cline (R-Va.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) in its lawsuit. “The gerrymandering referendum is illegal. In their rush to seize power and disenfranchise as many Republicans as they could find, Democrats cut corners, missed deadlines, and forced it onto the ballot improperly,” Cline said in a social media post regarding the lawsuit. “To top it off, they lie in the ballot question that voters will be asked in hopes of deceiving them into leaning a certain way.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter said, “There is hope the Virginia Supreme Court will throw out the redistricting ballot measure and prevent Virginia Democrats from drawing a 10-1, Democrat-Republican, congressional map.” He continued, “I think, from a political standpoint, the RNC is wise to challenge the constitutionality of the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting effort. It possibly negates the pickup of additional seats in Congress of their Democratic opponents, and signals to the rest of the states considering redistricting that the national party is willing to add resources to the legal fight in the redistricting war.”

A Democrat-aligned political action committee has already dedicated $5 million to a get-out-the-vote effort in support of redistricting, including a nearly-$3 million ad buy accusing President Donald Trump and Republicans of attempting to “rig the midterms.”