The Virginia Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge to a state law that changes how prison inmates are counted for purposes of redistricting.
The petition for a writ of mandamus from the court had alleged that the Virginia legislature acted outside of the “prescribed constitutional amendment process” when it enacted statutory criteria regarding the reallocation of prisoners. It argued that while the commission along with other redistricting criteria was created through referendum and constitutional amendments, the prisoner reallocation statute was not and thus violates the state constitution. The petition had asked the state supreme court to prohibit the commission from reallocating prisoners in accordance with the statute when drawing maps.
The court denied the petition partly on procedural grounds and also because petitioners failed to show that elections officials named in the petition are in “default of any duty imposed on them by law”. Read the order.
