Virginia Democrats are holding off on replacing their entire Supreme Court

 by Andrea Widburg

Just the other day, Virginia’s Democrats were seriously discussing whether they should use a procedural device to fire their entire Supreme Court so that they could replace it with a court more amenable to unconstitutionally gerrymandering their House districts. Today, though, they’ve backed off from the plan. However, before you relax and think sanity has returned to Virginia, don’t. Their reasons for stepping back from the abyss are not comforting.

American Thinker—and just about every other conservative outlet—wrote that the New York Times reported that Virginia Democrats were seriously considering, rather than laughing at, a plan to change the retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices. The idea, which came from a law professor at Michigan State, was that if Virginia immediately passed a law lowering the retirement age to 53 and made it effective upon the governor’s signature, all judges older than 53—that is, all the sitting judges—would be gone.

After the old judges were banished, Democrats (who control the legislature) could appoint a new batch of judges to the state Supreme Court. These judges would, of course, be amenable to reversing the prior court’s ruling that a ballot initiative to gerrymander Republicans out of existence in House elections was blatantly unconstitutional. (It was unconstitutional because it used manifestly biased language to force an outcome among uninformed voters.)

Effectively firing the whole state Supreme Court is an obscene plan, one that makes laughable the idea of a constitutional system, whether at the state or federal levels. It uses chicanery to place on the bench judges who are simply legislative puppets who will put their stamp on a fraudulent initiative that manipulated the will of Virginia voters.

But, as I said, the New York Times report makes it clear that Democrats seriously considered the idea, rather than having a good laugh. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, for example, was all in on the plan:

“Everyone has got to have a strong stomach right now; this is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are timid,” said Mr. Subramanyam, who was on the Saturday call. “We have Republican states ignoring their constitutions and interrupting early voting and ignoring their Supreme Courts all together. We know based on that, Republicans would explore every single option possible to move this forward.”

He’s wrong constitutionally, because a provision in a state constitution is invalidated if it violates the federal Constitution. That’s how the Supremacy Clause works. Moreover, while I know Republicans would consider many options, I’d like to think that rather than trying to destroy the entire system, they’d plan for the next election. But maybe that’s just me.

The good news is that Virginia Democrats have tabled the idea of replacing all their Supreme Court judges. However, it’s not because they’ve gained wisdom. Instead, their reasons are purely pragmatic and still illustrate how radical the Democrat party has become.

The Virginia Scope, a political newsletter, reported the latest: Virginia will not change the retirement age to fire all the judges. The not-good news is what various Virginia Democrats had to say.

According to the Virginia Scope, some objections were more woke than others. Thus, “Another operative pointed out that removing all seven justices would mean they are firing the first female Black chief justice.” I guess that’s one reason not to gut Virginia’s independent judiciary.

At the more pragmatic level, another said Democrats risk looking so extreme that, in District 2, Elaine Luria, a Democrat who lost to the Republican Jen Kiggans and is apparently favored to win back her old seat, would end up losing. It’s not a principled stand, but at least it’s a stand.

And then there’s what Virginia’s State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D, of course) had to say, which is really the most chilling thing of all. Apparently, he’s amenable to this crazed idea, but just doesn’t think it’ll work because of time constraints: “Surovell said that the time restrictions at the Department of Elections make the notion impractical.”

Additionally, Surovell added that the whole plan was “extreme,” so that Democrats will try more traditional approaches. By saying this, however, he left the door open for the non-traditional stuff.

For Democrats, there are no rules anymore, no republican principles, and no Constitution. The only Democrat “principle” is victory at any cost.

It’s very hard to understand how a republic can hold together when one party still thinks the rules matter and the other does not. Unless the voters slap down that second party, we’re about to find out whether, in fact, the republic can hold together.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/05/virginia_democrats_are_holding_off_on_replacing_their_entire_supreme_court.html