Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper, explained why he believes it is highly likely the state Supreme Court will strike down Virginia’s latest congressional map, which passed narrowly earlier this week and would shift the delegation in a once evenly split state to 10 Democratic representatives and one Republican.
Just a day after the referendum succeeded, a Tazewell County Circuit Court blocked the map from taking effect, calling the ballot language “flagrantly misleading.”
“So first, I guess let’s get to the breaking news,” Tapper said. “This judge in Southern Virginia ordering results to not be certified. The judge called the ballot language ‘flagrantly misleading.’ What’s your reaction?”
“Well, it certainly was flagrantly misleading, but my basic reaction is that I appreciate lower court wins, but the Virginia Supreme Court is going to decide this,” Cuccinelli replied. “And to Terry’s point about, well, hey, if they didn’t decide it before, there’s a reason the Supreme Court held off until after the vote. Over a hundred years of Virginia legal precedent says that the vote in a referendum is part of the legislative process. It’s analogous to a governor signing a bill. You don’t sue on a bill that hasn’t passed yet. So what they’ve done here in terms of timing is very much in keeping with the Virginia legal history. What isn’t in keeping with Virginia legal history is how this general assembly has so blatantly ignored the requirements of the constitution to amend the [state] constitution.”