Virginia Democrats just got smacked down by their own state Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling that torched their precious gerrymandered congressional maps — and their response isn't to accept the decision, appeal through proper channels, or do literally anything a normal political party would do. No, they want to remove every single justice on the court and replace them with hand-picked loyalists.
Because nothing says "we believe in democracy" like firing the entire judiciary when they rule against you.
Here's the backstory. Virginia's Supreme Court ruled that the Democrat-drawn congressional maps were unconstitutional. Those maps — which Democrat-aligned groups poured over $64 million into supporting between January and April 2026 — were designed to turn Virginia's current 6-5 Democratic congressional edge into a laughable 10-1 advantage. House Majority Forward alone dumped roughly $39 million into the effort. That's more than double what Republican opposition spent.
So when the court said "nah, that's unconstitutional," Democrats didn't take the L. They went nuclear.
Virginia Democrat Suhas Subramanyam is now pushing a proposal to lower the mandatory judicial retirement age — currently 75 — all the way down to 54. Why 54? Because that happens to be the age of the youngest justice currently sitting on the bench. Convenient, right? Every single justice would be forced into retirement, and the Democrat-controlled legislature would get to appoint replacements. Replacements who would, presumably, be totally cool with maps that give one party a 10-1 advantage.
Subramanyam isn't even trying to hide the power grab. "Everyone has got to have a strong stomach right now; this is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are timid," he told the Daily Wire. A "complete disaster" — meaning a court that follows the constitution instead of rubber-stamping whatever maps Democrats draw in a back room.
He also tried the classic deflection: "We have Republican states ignoring their constitutions and interrupting early voting and ignoring their Supreme Courts all together." So his argument is basically "other people are bad, so we should be bad too." Inspiring stuff, Suhas.
Let's be crystal clear about what's happening here. Democrats spent $64 million-plus rigging congressional maps to guarantee themselves a supermajority in Virginia's House delegation. The state's highest court — in a bipartisan 4-3 decision — said the maps violated the state constitution. And now Democrats want to dissolve the entire court and start over with friendly judges.
This is FDR's court-packing scheme, except dumber and more transparent. At least Roosevelt had the decency to propose adding seats instead of firing everyone. These people want to set the retirement age at whatever number clears the bench. That's not reform. That's a purge.
And the kicker? They had a redistricting commission. Virginia set one up specifically to prevent this kind of partisan garbage. But Democrats didn't like what the commission produced, drew their own maps, spent tens of millions pushing them through, and when the court said the maps were garbage — they decided the court was the problem.
Every time you think Democrats have hit rock bottom on institutional norms, they grab a shovel. They don't want independent courts. They don't want fair maps. They want a 10-1 advantage, and they'll burn down every guardrail in the system to get it.
Remember this the next time someone on CNN lectures you about "threats to democracy."
