Virginia's state Supreme Court struck down a plan that would have redrawn the state's congressional maps to benefit Democrats.

In an opinion released today, a majority of the justices said a referendum passed by voters last month was unconstitutional.

It was poised to transform Virginia's maps, allowing Democrats to gain up to four House seats this fall. Virginia's Democratic House

Speaker Don Scott decried the ruling, saying in part, this was always about more than one

election. It was about whether the voices of the people matter, and no decision can erase what

Virginians made clear at the ballot box. It is a major setback for Democrats as both parties wage a war of mid-decade

redistricting. For more on today's ruling in the national context, I'm joined by David Wasserman

of the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Welcome back to the News Hour. Let's start with Virginia.

Just walk us briefly through the court's reasoning here. And also, how big a deal is this when it comes to the battle for control of the House in November?

Now, this is a major setback for Democrats because they were counting on Virginia to counteract what Republicans have done in Texas and Florida and elsewhere.

And Virginia Democrats embarked on this effort to pass a constitutional amendment

to permit the legislature to pass a democratic gerrymander

just a couple days before last fall's legislative elections.

Under Virginia's Constitution, the General Assembly has to pass a constitutional amendment not just

once, but twice, once before a regularly scheduled legislative election, and once after,

and then send the question to voters. Democrats went through those steps, but the Virginia

Supreme Court, in this case, they found that Democrats had violated the procedure by embarking on this

while early voting was already underway and therefore not before the regularly scheduled

election.

So this is likely to cost Democrats several key seats because Virginia Democrats would have picked up four under the

map that they passed. Now, under the current map, they still have an opportunity to pick up

one or two seats, but it does make it harder for them to expand their house gains even

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