The relevant law is Va code § 8.01-675.2 and it does stipulate 21 days but there’s nothing stopping the General Assembly from changing that to say 365 days.
So we shall ignore that the New England States have ZERO GOP Districts and 22 Democratic ones. And CA has 77% Democratic districts, but the state votes only 60% Democratic, and now Newscum wants to make it 90% Democratic.
Fight fire with fire. The current Republican Party is filthy. They are breaking norms and institutions to implement a fascist agenda nationwide. Laws and voters be damned.
That is the one thing we have going for us. Between the Democrats and the Independents, we can outvote the Republicans. Also, right now, there are enough angry Republicans who won't vote for their own, and they will help too. Just keep showing them all the things that Trump promised and hasn't done. It's a long enough list to make the point.
Trump has done an awful lot of what he promised: closed the Border - which Biden said he couldn't do, made tax cuts permanent, ended DEI (a purely horrible and racist policy), fighting to stop transgender mutilations (a horrible travesty upon our misguided/misled youth), brought inflation down vs Biden, bringing good jobs and industry back to America, bringing critical tech back to America, ended multiple foreign wars, and currently working to stop Iran from getting nukes, started DOGE and already revealed massive fraud from NGO and within other govt programs. He has done all of this in less than 16 months, and many of those policy changes are still ongoing - Rome wasn't built in a day.
Funny how you call Republicans Fascists when it's the Democrats that are the true fascists. Fascists love big, powerful government; the GOP does not. Fascists want the government to force people and companies to follow them and treat certain groups as inferior to others (i.e. DEI policies). This sounds an awful lot like Democrats doesn't it? Democrats want to add more States to the Union so they can add more Democratic senators, and they want to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices; these are tactics of Fascists, and the GOP supports none of them. What say you?
Note what is absent from your comment, sir: any engagement with the actual legal question. Whether the intervening election requirement was violated. Whether the General Assembly followed its own constitutional process. Whether the referendum was procedurally legitimate. Or the demonstrably deceptive ballot language.
But is there even a question about bad faith? The Left believe they are better humans. And once a group believes it represents history, justice, and progress itself, anything becomes permissible. That is not a conspiracy. It is a well-documented political pattern. The comments here are exhibit A. What we are witnessing is moral supremacy, not ordinary partisanship.
There is one other option and according to the AP, it’s already kicked in: appealing the decision. Virginia Dems have filed an emergency appeal with SCOTUS. And as odious as they are, they have upheld restricting in TX and CA, on appeal-so there’s a small but hopeful chance they’ll overturn the VA. Supreme Court. Worth a try, anyway.
A state supreme court exclusively interpreting state procedural law in a way that favors Republicans is not going to get taken up by this SCOTUS. Think it's worth filing, but I put it at like 2% chance of just getting taken up at best.
Agreed that it’s a slim chance, but better than not making the effort-as you never know. I look at the same situation in California, where the referendum effort and vote were a fully state-based initiative which favored Dems, and SCOTUS upheld the results-knowing it would yield five more blue seats.
Based on what? It's strictly based on state procedural rules. If anything, this Supreme Court could use the case to declare that early voting periods are invalid.
This is a good idea. It reminds me of what happened when the Republicans took control of the North Carolina Supreme Court after the 2022 election and reversed a number of rulings made by the previously Democratic controlled Court for no legal reason except that the majority on the Court had changed. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Lower the retirement age for the Virginia Supreme Court ASAP, then move for reconsideration of the decision at issue.
We need to do that in NC as well, lower the retirement age to force noncompliant judges out. Lowering it to 65 gets extremist Newby off the court.
If NC Dems ride a big enough blue wave into flipping the legislature, there are going to be a TON of laws passed. First will be getting the MAGA extremist judges out by forced retirement and allowing Gov Stein to appoint their replacement with no preconditions. Second will be undoing the Harper vs Hall decision. Third will be Leandro and fourth will be nullifying the 12 week abortion ban Rs forced through when Traitor Tricia backstabbed her constituents and state.
Did you really write this, you know this is exactly what orban did, for a party that calls itself the Democratic Party this seems profoundly un democratic.
Are you aware of how many state Supreme courts in the U.S. have been packed by the GOP? Rules only work if both parties play fair. Fair play when the other party cheats egregiously is asking to be slaughtered.
This is not packing, this is way beyond it, your might as well revert to 18th century uk. With your proposal to oust every Virginian Supreme Court judge from office and presumably replace them with loyalists remember this quote from the Declaration of Independence
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries”
FL redistricted in clear violation of the FL state constitution. But because the FL Supreme Court is filled with partisans appointed by the current FL governor, what’s in the constitution doesn’t matter. I’m sure you are equally outraged by that.
And look at New York, which did the same thing, or tried to, compare Harkenrider v hochul (Rivera, J) dissenting with Hoffman v New York State redistricign commission. Also please don’t try to deny that the Virginia ballot language was not misleading. Actually cite some law next time you make an argument
When did I ever say that. You think by not supporting your unamerican plan I’m somehow condoning their behavior or letting them get away with it. Honestly you take these kinds of things to personally.
When judges overrule the will of the people for purely partisan and not legal reasons, what option do the people have left to protect themselves and see their will carried out? It's not as if the people voted to eliminate Black voting rights and the court deemed that unconstitutional and overturned it. They did the opposite.
It’s amazing how MAGA loving insurrectionist pardoning and pedophile protecting Lynn Gardner loves name calling and completely disregards the will of the voters while probably supporting a majority minority city in Memphis getting carved in four districts …this is warfare time b****
The undemocratic party is the Republicans in the age of Trump. They have no bottom when it comes to being craven. Start there with your critique, Jacom
Read the room, and understand: We didn't start this fire and didn't choose to play dirty, but fuck if we should let the fascists take over without the fight this deserves.
Well ask yourself this why isn’t the 5-2 liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court, getting you your extra 2 seats in Wisconsin. They just refused to hear a challenge for the 2nd time
I deleted several of your comments. Don't talk to other users that way, no matter how much they're annoying you. If you think someone has crossed the line, report the comment.
Oh fuck off. I’m so fucking sick of democrats who want to take the high road. Know where that has led us? To Donald fucking Trump and rightwing authoritarianism.
Decision was 4-3. Only one conservative judge would need to be retired to flip the court. A clean slate has advantages, of course, but the optics are worse. Teresa Chafin is the eldest member of the court and would be retired by dropping the retirement age from 73 to 70, which is the current mode among the states.
Teresa Mann is the oldest at 70, but Cleo Powell (black) is 69. Junius Fulton (black) is 68. The 3 Republican judges are 54, 56, and 64. One judge Thomas Mann, considered 'nonpartisan' is 61.
See the problem with age-ism? It doesn't necessarily reflect values.
I honestly don't take your point, other than you don't like mandatory retirement ages (for what it's worth I'm not a fan either, but this is not a situation where we are deciding optimal policy, it's one where we are operating within the realm of the possible given prior events). Perhaps you assumed that I was unaware of the ages and ideology of the remaining justices and was assuming the younger justices were more liberal? I assure you that's not the case.
Lowering the existing mandatory retirement age to 70 (the same age as 18 other states)) means eliminating a GOP justice (Chafin) and replacing her with an appointee of the current Democratic legislative majority, presumably changing the ruling in a follow-up case on the Congressional map.
When Powell and Fulton retire they will be replaced with Democrats as well, for no change in the net partisan composition of the court. This is true whether they retire immediately, as proposed by Quinn, or by 73 (as per current law), or at 70 (as per my proposal). The only way I see how this would not be true is if the General Assembly is taken over by Republicans between now and the time of their retirement. The odds of that are low in the near term.
Why not just lower it to a more palatable 70 which would remove one justice who was in the majority and replace her with someone highly likely to vote the other way?
We just need Chafin out and the age lowered to 70 and you flip the court. Even if this doesn't lead to a new decision ASAP at least it shows the SCOVA who is in charge of Virginia.
Well Lynn, the people spoke, Americans and Virginians and they said yes. This is not Socialist agenda, it is democracy in action. Wake up and look around! The current administration is authoritarian, corrupt, ignores the rule of law, constantly lies, demeans anyone, steps on anyone who doesn't agree with them, profits off the american people at our expense and is aligning us with Putin to destroy our democracy. It is now costing you 30% more to live. Your safety nets are destroyed and the money is going to support bombing other people and destroying ( and murdering) innocent people in this country! Think about it and see how your world and those of your family are being destroyed.
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title8.01/chapter26/section8.01-675.2/
The relevant law is Va code § 8.01-675.2 and it does stipulate 21 days but there’s nothing stopping the General Assembly from changing that to say 365 days.
I bet you didn't have a problem with Texas and Florida and Tennessee doing a 'power grab' WITHOUT voter approval, did you?
You mean force a new Congressional map mid decade like they did here in NC, TX, and MO? Fuck you.
re: "I bet you didn't have a problem with Texas and Florida and Tennessee doing a 'power grab' WITHOUT voter approval, did you?"
Poster has lost sight of the purpose of elected representatives functioning in a Republic form of government.
So we shall ignore that the New England States have ZERO GOP Districts and 22 Democratic ones. And CA has 77% Democratic districts, but the state votes only 60% Democratic, and now Newscum wants to make it 90% Democratic.
Aw look, this MAGA bot thinks that allowing voters the choice to opt in a gerrymandered map as opposed to having Rs force it on us is socialist.
Well cancelling elections to force new maps on voters is fascist. You and your other party members are dangerous, fascist Republicans.
Eat a bag of Richards, cupcake. This blue wave isn't going to stop Democrats from retaking the House AND Senate in November.
Fight fire with fire. The current Republican Party is filthy. They are breaking norms and institutions to implement a fascist agenda nationwide. Laws and voters be damned.
Luckily, there's more of us then there is of them. And fascism can't overcome a blue wave and an opposition party who actually fights back.
That is the one thing we have going for us. Between the Democrats and the Independents, we can outvote the Republicans. Also, right now, there are enough angry Republicans who won't vote for their own, and they will help too. Just keep showing them all the things that Trump promised and hasn't done. It's a long enough list to make the point.
Trump has done an awful lot of what he promised: closed the Border - which Biden said he couldn't do, made tax cuts permanent, ended DEI (a purely horrible and racist policy), fighting to stop transgender mutilations (a horrible travesty upon our misguided/misled youth), brought inflation down vs Biden, bringing good jobs and industry back to America, bringing critical tech back to America, ended multiple foreign wars, and currently working to stop Iran from getting nukes, started DOGE and already revealed massive fraud from NGO and within other govt programs. He has done all of this in less than 16 months, and many of those policy changes are still ongoing - Rome wasn't built in a day.
I don't think there are more of us than them on an ongoing basis. Right now, there are. 2 years ago, there weren't.
Funny how you call Republicans Fascists when it's the Democrats that are the true fascists. Fascists love big, powerful government; the GOP does not. Fascists want the government to force people and companies to follow them and treat certain groups as inferior to others (i.e. DEI policies). This sounds an awful lot like Democrats doesn't it? Democrats want to add more States to the Union so they can add more Democratic senators, and they want to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices; these are tactics of Fascists, and the GOP supports none of them. What say you?
You have no idea of what fascism is.
Oh tell me, wise one. And then tell me what Democrats are doing, because it surely isn't Democratic or Republican in any form.
Bad policy and dirty pool, but entirely justified in the circumstances. We cannot be the party of "Thank You, Sir, may I have another?"
This is exactly what needs to happen. Use the law to create space for us to elbow our way to the front.
Note what is absent from your comment, sir: any engagement with the actual legal question. Whether the intervening election requirement was violated. Whether the General Assembly followed its own constitutional process. Whether the referendum was procedurally legitimate. Or the demonstrably deceptive ballot language.
But is there even a question about bad faith? The Left believe they are better humans. And once a group believes it represents history, justice, and progress itself, anything becomes permissible. That is not a conspiracy. It is a well-documented political pattern. The comments here are exhibit A. What we are witnessing is moral supremacy, not ordinary partisanship.
54 is a bit too low. How about 70? Gets Chafin out immediately.
There is one other option and according to the AP, it’s already kicked in: appealing the decision. Virginia Dems have filed an emergency appeal with SCOTUS. And as odious as they are, they have upheld restricting in TX and CA, on appeal-so there’s a small but hopeful chance they’ll overturn the VA. Supreme Court. Worth a try, anyway.
Don’t hold your breath. SCOTUS put us here in the first place.
Stupid is as stupid does!
...but by when?
Not worth a try when this solution is possible. We don't want to help the Supreme Court make more bad law.
A state supreme court exclusively interpreting state procedural law in a way that favors Republicans is not going to get taken up by this SCOTUS. Think it's worth filing, but I put it at like 2% chance of just getting taken up at best.
So does that justify Rs redistricting states they control mid-decade? And give me an honest answer than RW babbling.
Agreed that it’s a slim chance, but better than not making the effort-as you never know. I look at the same situation in California, where the referendum effort and vote were a fully state-based initiative which favored Dems, and SCOTUS upheld the results-knowing it would yield five more blue seats.
The CA gerrymander appeal was a federal challenge, that's why SCOTUS said anything at all about it.
Based on what? It's strictly based on state procedural rules. If anything, this Supreme Court could use the case to declare that early voting periods are invalid.
I meant to say redistricting, not restricting!
Three dots on the right allows you to edit.
This is a good idea. It reminds me of what happened when the Republicans took control of the North Carolina Supreme Court after the 2022 election and reversed a number of rulings made by the previously Democratic controlled Court for no legal reason except that the majority on the Court had changed. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Lower the retirement age for the Virginia Supreme Court ASAP, then move for reconsideration of the decision at issue.
We need to do that in NC as well, lower the retirement age to force noncompliant judges out. Lowering it to 65 gets extremist Newby off the court.
If NC Dems ride a big enough blue wave into flipping the legislature, there are going to be a TON of laws passed. First will be getting the MAGA extremist judges out by forced retirement and allowing Gov Stein to appoint their replacement with no preconditions. Second will be undoing the Harper vs Hall decision. Third will be Leandro and fourth will be nullifying the 12 week abortion ban Rs forced through when Traitor Tricia backstabbed her constituents and state.
What a desperate Friday night fantasy
Context August?
Context will be clear when this plays out.
In other words, you have nothing.
Did you really write this, you know this is exactly what orban did, for a party that calls itself the Democratic Party this seems profoundly un democratic.
Are you aware of how many state Supreme courts in the U.S. have been packed by the GOP? Rules only work if both parties play fair. Fair play when the other party cheats egregiously is asking to be slaughtered.
This is not packing, this is way beyond it, your might as well revert to 18th century uk. With your proposal to oust every Virginian Supreme Court judge from office and presumably replace them with loyalists remember this quote from the Declaration of Independence
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries”
FL redistricted in clear violation of the FL state constitution. But because the FL Supreme Court is filled with partisans appointed by the current FL governor, what’s in the constitution doesn’t matter. I’m sure you are equally outraged by that.
And look at New York, which did the same thing, or tried to, compare Harkenrider v hochul (Rivera, J) dissenting with Hoffman v New York State redistricign commission. Also please don’t try to deny that the Virginia ballot language was not misleading. Actually cite some law next time you make an argument
So if I understand what you are saying, it’s okay for Republicans todo it, but not Dems. Can’t have it both ways.
When did I ever say that. You think by not supporting your unamerican plan I’m somehow condoning their behavior or letting them get away with it. Honestly you take these kinds of things to personally.
Jacom is a troll Chris.
When judges overrule the will of the people for purely partisan and not legal reasons, what option do the people have left to protect themselves and see their will carried out? It's not as if the people voted to eliminate Black voting rights and the court deemed that unconstitutional and overturned it. They did the opposite.
It’s amazing how MAGA loving insurrectionist pardoning and pedophile protecting Lynn Gardner loves name calling and completely disregards the will of the voters while probably supporting a majority minority city in Memphis getting carved in four districts …this is warfare time b****
The undemocratic party is the Republicans in the age of Trump. They have no bottom when it comes to being craven. Start there with your critique, Jacom
So your proposal is to also undemocratic as well. Ludicrous to say the least. I know this proposal will never pass.
Boring
Undemocratic?
Tell us how Virginia Supreme Court members are elected, Jacom? Some of us missed that.
Read the room, and understand: We didn't start this fire and didn't choose to play dirty, but fuck if we should let the fascists take over without the fight this deserves.
All this for 4 seats, sad really
Well ask yourself this why isn’t the 5-2 liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court, getting you your extra 2 seats in Wisconsin. They just refused to hear a challenge for the 2nd time
I suggest your get yourself educated on this topic before your purport to lecture other on it.
As I said perhaps its tjme Jacom finds that solace from his Trump blow up doll
But not sad in Texas or Florida, right?
No, you are sadly missing the obvious. This is not just about VA seats.
I deleted several of your comments. Don't talk to other users that way, no matter how much they're annoying you. If you think someone has crossed the line, report the comment.
Learn to read the room around here. Don't pick fights like this in the future.
Utah added two state supreme court justices after they refused to strike down Prop 4 so 🤷♀️
Oh fuck off. I’m so fucking sick of democrats who want to take the high road. Know where that has led us? To Donald fucking Trump and rightwing authoritarianism.
Decision was 4-3. Only one conservative judge would need to be retired to flip the court. A clean slate has advantages, of course, but the optics are worse. Teresa Chafin is the eldest member of the court and would be retired by dropping the retirement age from 73 to 70, which is the current mode among the states.
Teresa Mann is the oldest at 70, but Cleo Powell (black) is 69. Junius Fulton (black) is 68. The 3 Republican judges are 54, 56, and 64. One judge Thomas Mann, considered 'nonpartisan' is 61.
See the problem with age-ism? It doesn't necessarily reflect values.
I honestly don't take your point, other than you don't like mandatory retirement ages (for what it's worth I'm not a fan either, but this is not a situation where we are deciding optimal policy, it's one where we are operating within the realm of the possible given prior events). Perhaps you assumed that I was unaware of the ages and ideology of the remaining justices and was assuming the younger justices were more liberal? I assure you that's not the case.
Lowering the existing mandatory retirement age to 70 (the same age as 18 other states)) means eliminating a GOP justice (Chafin) and replacing her with an appointee of the current Democratic legislative majority, presumably changing the ruling in a follow-up case on the Congressional map.
When Powell and Fulton retire they will be replaced with Democrats as well, for no change in the net partisan composition of the court. This is true whether they retire immediately, as proposed by Quinn, or by 73 (as per current law), or at 70 (as per my proposal). The only way I see how this would not be true is if the General Assembly is taken over by Republicans between now and the time of their retirement. The odds of that are low in the near term.
So you're saying that if we set it as 67, we could flip the court and replace two aging justices with 35-year-old firebreathers.
Why not just lower it to a more palatable 70 which would remove one justice who was in the majority and replace her with someone highly likely to vote the other way?
We just need Chafin out and the age lowered to 70 and you flip the court. Even if this doesn't lead to a new decision ASAP at least it shows the SCOVA who is in charge of Virginia.
Well Lynn, the people spoke, Americans and Virginians and they said yes. This is not Socialist agenda, it is democracy in action. Wake up and look around! The current administration is authoritarian, corrupt, ignores the rule of law, constantly lies, demeans anyone, steps on anyone who doesn't agree with them, profits off the american people at our expense and is aligning us with Putin to destroy our democracy. It is now costing you 30% more to live. Your safety nets are destroyed and the money is going to support bombing other people and destroying ( and murdering) innocent people in this country! Think about it and see how your world and those of your family are being destroyed.
Not that there's anything wrong with the socialist agenda, which is all about making life better for everyone except billionaires.
Arguably less money would be better for them as well, lol.
Nice loophole…USE IT!!!
“The state Constitution gives lawmakers complete latitude to set the judicial retirement age. They should use it.”