Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury

Virginia court strikes down redistricting amendment headed for April ballot

by Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury
January 27, 2026

A Virginia circuit court on Tuesday struck down a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at giving lawmakers the option to redraw congressional districts mid-decade, dealing a major setback to Democratic legislative leaders who say the change is needed to respond to partisan gerrymandering in some Republican-led states and had hoped to put the measure before voters in an April referendum....

Rick Buchanan didn’t expect to walk out before the first session even ended.

The chair of the 5th Congressional District GOP Committee had arrived at the Donald W. Huffman Advance — the Republican Party of Virginia’s annual flagship gathering — at The Forum Hotel in Charlottesville on Dec. 6, 2024, hoping the event would offer a clear roadmap heading into a pivotal election year.

Instead, he said, he witnessed what felt like an early coronation of Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who had launched her gubernatorial bid that September and, in his view, had already been handpicked by Gov. Glenn Youngkin as his successor....

Virginia House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon released the long-awaited text of their proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the General Assembly to modify congressional districts mid-decade if another state redraws its own congressional map for political reasons.

The proposal, House Joint Resolution 6007, would amend Article II, Section 6 of the Virginia Constitution to authorize the legislature to “modify one or more congressional districts … in the event that any state … conducts a redistricting of such state’s congressional districts … for any purpose other than completion of the state’s decennial redistricting or as ordered by a court to remedy an unlawful or unconstitutional district map.”

Under a separate section added to the constitutional Schedule, that authority would apply only between Jan. 1, 2025, and Oct. 31, 2030, and only “in response to actions taken by another state” during that same period....

A World War II-era boiler in Virginia is at the center of a growing debate over the paper industry’s role in climate change — and how much pollution goes uncounted due to loopholes in federal reporting rules.

The Smurfit Westrock paper mill in Covington, a 126-year-old facility located north of Roanoke, released more climate-warming pollution in 2023 than any other paper mill in the country, according to a sweeping new report by the Environmental Integrity Project.

The watchdog group found that the facility reported emitting 970,084 metric tons of greenhouse gases last year — but in reality, it released more than 2.5 million tons. The discrepancy stems from an Environmental Protection Agency policy that allows facilities to omit emissions from the burning of wood and wood byproducts, known as “biogenic” fuels. ...

The internal drama roiling Virginia Republicans deepened over the weekend as John Reid, the party’s embattled nominee for lieutenant governor, accused Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s political action committee of extortion — escalating an already explosive rift just months before November’s elections.

In a defiant video posted Sunday afternoon on X, Reid alleged that a representative of Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC told his team the organization would purchase damaging opposition research and “the lies and threats against me would suddenly stop” if he agreed to drop out of the race.

The allegations come just 48 hours after it became public that Youngkin had personally asked Reid to withdraw over concerns about a social media account linked to explicit content. ...