Adkins v. Virginia Redistricting Commission

In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly passed a constitutional amendment establishing an independent redistricting commission (“Commission”). As required by the Virginia Constitution, the amendment then went on the 2020 ballot for Virginia voters to accept or reject as “Virginia Question 1.” 65.69% of voters approved the amendment. The amendment granted the Commission complete authority to draw maps of the state’s legislative and congressional districts. 

In 2020, the Assembly also passed House Bill 1255, which laid out standards and criteria for the redistricting commission that was approved by voters in the 2020 election. One of the bill’s provisions abolished prison gerrymandering in Virginia’s redistricting processes. 

Prison gerrymandering is a type of gerrymandering where, during redistricting and reapportionment, people housed in correctional facilities are counted as living in the districts in which they are incarcerated instead of where they resided before being imprisoned. As a result, prison gerrymandering artificially inflates the population of communities where people housed in prisons are not represented or from. Bill 1255 requires people housed in correctional facilities to be counted at the address in which they lived immediately prior to incarceration.  

On August 13, 2021, six Virginia voters and one state senator (“Petitioners”) filed a petition for a writ of mandamus directed to the Virginia Redistricting Commission. Specifically, petitioners argued that ending the practice of prison gerrymandering would violate Article II, Section 6 of the Virginia Constitution, which requires districts to have equal populations and asked the state supreme court to order the Commission to draw the new electoral districts using only the criteria included in the state constitution, instead of the criteria included in House Bill 1255. Additionally, they requested a permanent injunction against using the criteria set out in House Bill 1255. 

On September 1, 2023, Respondents filed a response brief stating that as a bipartisan body of citizens and legislators, the Commission takes no position on the Petition. Instead, the Commission requested that the Court make a timely decision due to the strict deadlines for redistricting. 

The same day, the League of Women Voters of Virginia (“LWV Virginia”), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Voting Rights Project, ACLU Virginia, and the National Black Nonpartisan Redistricting Organization filed an amicus brief supporting the Commission.  

The brief urged the court to reject the petitioners’ request. The brief illustrated the harm caused by prison gerrymandering and why ending the practice did not conflict with the Virginia Constitution or House Bill 1255 criteria for redistricting.  

Prison gerrymandering disproportionately discriminates against Black communities by turning racial discrimination in the criminal legal system and consequent disproportionate rates of incarceration into disparity in representation. The practice creates electoral maps that give rural, white communities where prisons are located inflated representation at the expense of largely Black, urban areas. The brief argued the requested remedy—a writ of mandamus—is one reserved to promote justice and that Petitioners were instead attempting to sustain a practice that discriminated against Black communities.  

On September 22, 2021, the Virginia Supreme Court dismissed the case, stating the Petitioners failed to state a claim for relief and denied the request for injunctive relief.  

The League was represented in this matter by the ACLU Virginia and the ACLU Voting Rights Project.