WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 20, 2019) - Perkins Coie secured a significant 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision on June 17 for 12 Virginia voters in a constitutional challenge to a Virginia House of Delegates’ redistricting map arising under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Supreme Court decision followed a prior victory before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia which held that 11 House of Delegates districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders and subsequently redrew the voting map. The Supreme Court justices in their 5-4 ruling dismissed the Republican-controlled State House’s appeal for lack of standing.

“We are pleased to have won this critically important case before the Supreme Court on behalf of Virginia voters,” said Marc Elias, the Chair of Perkins Coie’s Political Law Practice. “African American voters will finally vote for state House delegates under a fair map this November, having been forced to vote in racially gerrymandered districts since 2011.”

Elias argued the matter before the Supreme Court, making the case that the Court should affirm on the merits if it reached them but also arguing that was unnecessary, because the intervenors lacked standing to pursue the appeal from the outset.

Following a bench trial in July 2015, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia voted 2-1 to uphold the legislative map. Perkins Coie sought review by the Supreme Court, and on March 1, 2017, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court, finding that the majority had applied an incorrect legal standard and remanded the case for additional proceedings. A new trial was held on remand before a three-judge panel in October 2017, and in July 2018 the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held that 11 of the House of Delegates districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The House of Delegates appealed this decision, which the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed on June 17 for lack of standing.

The Perkins Coie team also included Kevin Hamilton, John Devaney, Abha Khanna, Ben Stafford, Bruce Spiva, Ryan Spear and Aria Branch.

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