The Independent View: VA Redistricting Battle Huge Cost for State Citizens

The long Legal Battle over whether the Virginia General Assembly’s 2011 Redistricting packed African-Americans into 11 House of Delegates Districts in a way that Diluted Voting Power hasn’t come Cheap.

Now on its way, for the Second time to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Cost to Taxpayers of the House’s intervention in the Case has reached $4,067,098.03, according to Speaker Kirk Cox’s (R-66th District) Office. In addition, the Attorney General spent $877,000 Defending the State Board of Elections, which was the entity that Voters actually Sued. Its last Payment was made in 2015.

The Lawsuit started in 2014. Last month, a Panel of Federal Judges ruled that the General Assembly Violated Federal Law when Drawing Lines for Majority-Minority Districts, including Two on the Peninsula and Four in South Hampton Roads.

Cox has asked the Judges to Suspend their Order to Draw New Maps by Oct. 30th, saying the House intends to Appeal the Order to the Supreme Court. He has argued that the Judges gave the General Assembly an impossible Task of Balancing the Constitution’s Requirement for Equal Protection of All under the Law and Complying with Court Interpretations of the Federal Voting Rights Act.

Cox believes recent Decisions by the Supreme Court on Redistricting Cases means there’s a good chance it will Uphold the Lines, which among other things created Districts with Populations that are more than 60% African-American as they made Surrounding Districts more Republican.

In Appealing to the High Court, Cox is Acting under a Resolution Approved by the House in the 2014 Special Session. It’s an interesting Resolution, as it happens, since it was Enacted Three Months before the Lawsuit challenging the Redistricting emerged.

Sparked by Attorney General Mark Herring’s (D) Announcement in that year that his Office would No Longer Defend Virginia Laws on Banning Same-Sex Marriage, the Resolution Empowers the House to Hire its Own Lawyer in that Case, in which the Supreme Court ultimately Overturned the Marriage Ban. For good measure, the Resolution also Empowered the Speaker of the House, at the time Bill Howell, to Hire Attorneys in Case then, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, moved to Expand Medicaid by Executive Order, as Governors elsewhere had done.

And, it added, the Speaker should be Empowered to employ legal counsel to represent the House of Delegates in any proceeding in which a provision of the Constitution of Virginia is contested or is at issue or in which the constitutionality, legality, or application of a law established under legislative authority is at issue and the Governor and Attorney General choose not to defend the provision or law in such proceeding, or in which it is necessary to defend the responsibilities, authority and prerogatives of the House of Delegates.

The $4 Million-plus Bill for what Cox’s Spokesman Parker Slaybaugh called “The politically motivated lawsuit organized by out-of-state liberal billionaires” comes out of the House of Delegates’ Budget. That Budget, by the way, grew from $24.5 Million the Year of the Resolution to $26.3 Million this Year, roughly a 7% Increase. That’s about $340,000 more than what Inflation would entail.