A federal court on Thursday approved new district boundaries for the Virginia House of Delegates that were drawn by a court-appointed expert and are likely to benefit Democrats in November’s state election. The U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Virginia voted 2 to 1 to finalize the map, which would put six Republicans into districts that would probably become majority Democratic, according to an analysis of recent elections by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. After the General Assembly failed to agree on a redistricting plan last fall, the judges appointed Bernard Grofman, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, to draw new boundaries. Meanwhile, Cox appealed the redistricting to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to take the case but has opted to allow Grofman’s new plan to move ahead. The Republican plan would amend the state constitution to set up a 12-member commission appointed mostly by the legislature.

Source: Washington Post February 14, 2019 20:13 UTC