Hakeem Jeffries used to lecture America that destroying judicial independence was something only authoritarians do.
That was before he lost.
Now Jeffries is plotting to destroy Virginia's entire Supreme Court to reverse a ruling his party doesn't like – and the move has a name historians already gave it ninety years ago.
Democrats Plot to Replace Virginia Supreme Court After Redistricting Loss
Virginia's Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Democrats violated the state constitution when they placed a redistricting amendment on the ballot.
The violation was their own fault.
State law requires a proposed constitutional amendment to pass the General Assembly twice, with a general election between votes. Democrats cast their first vote on October 31, 2025 – after early voting had already begun, with roughly 40 percent of ballots already cast.
The court ruled the early voting period counts as the election. Democrats had already blown their window before they even voted.
The court said the violation "incurably taints the resulting referendum vote and nullifies its legal efficacy."
Democrats broke the rules. The court enforced the rules. Democrats lost four House seats they were counting on.
So House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries convened a private call with Virginia Democrats to plan their next move.
The Court-Packing Scheme Hakeem Jeffries Discussed Behind Closed Doors
The scheme they floated runs through three moves.
Step one: invoke a January circuit court ruling to argue the 2020 amendment creating Virginia's bipartisan redistricting commission was itself invalid – handing map-drawing power directly to the Democrat-controlled legislature.
Step two: have Democrats in the General Assembly lower the mandatory retirement age for Virginia Supreme Court justices from 73 to 54 – the age of Justice Stephen McCullough, the youngest member of the majority. Every current justice gets forced out. Democrats fill all seven seats with hand-picked replacements.
Step three: new court, new map, four new House seats.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat who was on the call, made clear what kind of resolve this requires: "Everyone has got to have a strong stomach right now; this is a complete disaster waiting to happen if people are timid."
A sitting Democrat congressman telling his colleagues to have the stomach to purge a state Supreme Court.
Democrats Purged an Entire State Supreme Court in 1935 and Got Away With It
On January 1, 1935, Democrats in Rhode Island staged what historians call the Bloodless Revolution.
After seizing control of the legislature, Democrats declared the entire Republican-dominated state Supreme Court vacant – and replaced every justice in a single night. House Majority Leader Edmund Flynn was installed as Chief Justice. The new court promptly upheld the legislature's power to "remove any judge from office at any time at its pleasure."
The New York Times described it at the time as "a startling coup."
What Jeffries is proposing is not new. Democrats have run this play before – and it took Rhode Island decades to dig out from under it.
When FDR tried a softer version in 1937 – proposing to add justices for every Supreme Court member over 70 – his own party revolted. The Senate buried the bill. Democrat committee chairs led the opposition.
The Senate Judiciary Committee called the plan "a needless, futile and utterly dangerous abandonment of constitutional principle." Even Ruth Bader Ginsburg said decades later it was a bad idea because it would make the court look political.
That was a proposal to add justices. Jeffries is proposing to remove all seven and start over.
The New York Times Called Jeffries' Court-Packing Plan an Unusual Gambit
The New York Times described the plan as an "audacious and possibly far-fetched idea" and an "unusual gambit."
The same paper that spent four years warning America about threats to democratic institutions watched Democrats plot to purge an entire state court system – to reverse a ruling they lost on a technicality of their own making – and called it unusual.
Former Rep. James Moran, a Virginia Democrat, was more honest: "We do have to keep our credibility. We have to do things that pass the legitimacy test."
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters didn't hedge: "Democrats just learned that when you try to rig elections, you lose. Today, the Virginia Supreme Court sided with the rule of law and struck down Democrats' unconstitutional maps."
Virginia Primary Deadline Gives Democrats 72 Hours to Act
Virginia's election commissioner warned in a court filing last month that any map changes after Tuesday – May 12 – will significantly increase the risk the state cannot properly prepare for its August 4 primary.
Democrats have also signaled they'll appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Legal experts have already warned that's a dead end – the Virginia ruling rests on state constitutional grounds, giving the federal court no jurisdiction.
Republicans already hold a net redistricting advantage heading into November. Without Virginia's four seats, that edge reaches twelve House seats. The House currently stands at 217 Republicans to 212 Democrats.
Jeffries needed Virginia. He doesn't have it. And the move he's now considering has a ninety-year track record – of courts getting packed, states getting broken, and Americans having to clean up the mess Democrats left behind.
Sources:
- Reid J. Epstein, "Democrats Weigh Dramatic Options After Virginia Court Voids Redistricting Map," The New York Times, May 10, 2026.
- Joe Cunningham, "Democrats Plot Coup Against Virginia Supreme Court in Redistricting Fight," RedState, May 10, 2026.
- RNC Chairman Joe Gruters, statement on Virginia Supreme Court ruling, Republican National Committee, May 8, 2026.
- "Scoundrels: Chapter 5, The Bloodless Revolution," GoLocalProv, January 30, 2017.
- "Judicial Procedures Reform Bill of 1937," Wikipedia, accessed May 10, 2026.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson, statement on Virginia ruling, May 8, 2026.
