The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday will hear arguments in a Republican challenge to the redrawn congressional map that was approved by voters last week and could net Democrats four additional U.S. House seats.
The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week's statewide vote meaningless.
The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House.
President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia's new map.
Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has included congressional redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.
On Sunday, Trump said he was in favor of the Florida attempt and criticized the Virginia amendment that was pushed by Democrats.
“It’s a very bad thing for our country. Very, very bad,” he told Fox News Channel’s "The Sunday Briefing."
So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw. Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.
Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts, which narrowly won voter approval last Tuesday, could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.
At issue before the state Supreme Court is whether those districts should be invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers.
Because the state's redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose a new constitutional amendment to redraw districts themselves. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place an amendment on the ballot.
In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.
The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley's order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case. Republicans have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding their way through the courts.
A poster on the Virginia redistricting referendum is seen during voting at Mason Square, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Alexandria, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Signs are seen outside Fairfax Government Center during the Virginia redistricting referendum, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Fairfax, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Oil prices were up Monday as a standoff between the U.S. and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz remained despite a ceasefire, while Pakistan leaders were seeking to revive stalled talks between the two countries.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Russia Monday for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin as part of a trip that included two stops in Pakistan and a visit to Oman, which shares the strait with the Islamic Republic.
Pakistan-led mediators are working to bridge significant gaps between the U.S. and Iran, according to a regional official involved in the mediation efforts who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump canceled plans for his top envoys to travel to Islamabad this weekend for negotiations after Iran insisted the U.S. should end its blockade of Iranian ports before new talks can take place.
Early Monday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it has so far turned around 38 ships during the blockade.
Since the war began, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran and at least 2,509 people in Lebanon, where the Israel-Hezbollah fighting resumed two days after the Iran war started.
Also, 23 people have been killed in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 U.S. service members in the region and six U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.
Here is the latest:
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Monday that his trip to Russia offered an opportunity to coordinate with Moscow after the war with Israel and the United States.
Araghchi made the comments in a pretaped interview posted by the state-run IRNA news agency.
“It is a good opportunity for us to consult with our Russian friends about the developments that have occurred in relation to the war during this period and what is happening now,” he said.
Araghchi said it was America’s approach that “caused the negotiations to be delayed” that had been planned in Islamabad.
“The previous one, despite the progress that had been made, could not achieve its goals,” he said, blaming what he called Washington’s “excessive demands.”
Trump has questioned who is in charge in Iran at the moment and said confusion within its theocracy made it difficult to reach a deal.
Iran’s top diplomat arrived Monday in Russia ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The state-run IRNA news agency said Abbas Araghchi landed in St. Petersburg for his meeting with Putin.
Araghchi has visited Islamabad twice and Muscat, Oman, on the foreign trip as negotiations with the U.S. appear stalled over the Iran war.
Men ride a scooter while waving a Hezbollah flag during a small gathering in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A woman walks past an anti-U.S. graffiti painted on the wall of the Tehran University on Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iraqis Muslim women hold portraits of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
In this photo released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, right, shakes hands with Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tariq during their meeting, in Muscat, Oman, Sunday, April 26, 2026. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
Fadi Al Zein, left, who lost both his homes in Israeli strikes in his village of Khiam and in Dahiyeh, searches through the rubble of his heavily damaged home as a child stands nearby, in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Saturday, April 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
