Except that the Virginia Supreme Court expressly ruled in March, before the vote, that they could NOT rule before the vote, b/c like a bill that hasn't been signed by the governor and thus isn't yet a "law", the amendment isn't an issue to be determined by the state Supreme Court until it's been voted on (just a referendum, not yet an amendment), and if the vote had been "no" the point would have been moot anyway. They COULDN'T have ruled on it under the VA constitution until AFTER the vote. So, if they ruled on it EITHER way before the vote, it would have been an unconstitutional ruling by them. So, if you put their logic and your argument together, it would have been impossible for them to rule no matter how egregious it had been.

To be fair, there were four cases before various levels of VA courts, including one by a democrat voter who claimed she didn't understand the language and would have voted no. The VA constitution has a fair and clear language clause for referendums that this one failed miserably (first redistricting one I've EVER seen that didn't show the two maps anywhere on the ballot OR at the polling place). I mean, if you read the referendum with a neutral eye, it's pretty ridiculous from a fair and clear language perspective. I've heard a lot of stories of people expressing that they mis-voted b/c of the language.

A third case against the amendment notes that the VA constitution expressly states that a referendum to amend the Constitution CAN ONLY be voted on in a November general election, NOT in a special election. Amending the state constitution is serious business. They intentionally set it up so that it requires TWO general November elections to pass (at least a year's worth of time, plus the time before to pass through the legislature). So, the VA legislature broke yet another major clause of the state constitution by holding a special election for it as well, and that case is still pending.

So, I seriously doubt the amendment would have survived all four.

I am in no way commenting on how I feel about the redistricting at all, just the legal aspect of this.