Judge William R. Marchant of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia [official website] in Richmond ruled [opinion, PDF] in favor of the state on Friday in a lawsuit challenging the redistricting of 11 legislative districts. OneVirginia2021[advocate website], a non-profit organization that advocates for “fair redistricting” in the state, brought the suit accusing Republican legislators of gerrymandering when drawing the districts during the 2011 Virginia General Assembly. Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell [official website] praised the court’s decision, saying [Washington Post report] “Virginia has a fair and open redistricting process that involves multiple hearings and extensive input from the public.” Wyatt B Durrette [professional profile], the attorney for OneVirginia2021, has indicated they will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

Voting rights continue to be a pressing issue. Last month seven convicted felons on filed suit alleging [JURIST report] Florida’s process of restoring voting rights to felons is unconstitutionally arbitrary. Earlier in March a three-judge panel of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled [JURIST report] that the boundaries of three voting districts violated the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution. Also in March the US Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that Virginia’s redistricting scheme must be examined for racial bias. In February the state of Georgia settled a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Secretary of State Brian Kemp over a voter registration law that would reject any application that did not exactly match personal identification information in state and federal databases.