Law Professor Calls Out Democrat Lawyer for His Insane Take on the VA Redistricting Fight

This point will be emphasized repeatedly because it’s outrageous. The entire response to the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to overturn a gerrymandered map was unhinged. The Democrats violated the state constitution by pushing through that amendment and the subsequent referendum that gave them a 10-1 advantage. Now, Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones is attempting to appeal to the Supreme Court for intervention, but he has no case except for this trivial ‘what is election day’ question. And now, Democrat lawyer Marc Elias is essentially calling for chaos to secure victory. Law Professor Jonathon Turley was not impressed, especially since it’s clear that this move was meant to appease the highly emotional, left-wing activist wing of the Democratic base:

...The posting came as Democrats pushed to sack-and-pack the Virginia Supreme Court, reminding people that they could go even further in taking down part or all of the Virginia government for being denied the right to effectively eliminate all Republican representations in the…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 15, 2026

Democratic lawyer Marc Elias appears to believe that Democrats do not need to stop at simply sacking and packing the Virginia Supreme Court in response to the adverse ruling on the radical gerrymandering plan. Elias reminded Democrats that they could eliminate the entire Virginia government under the state constitution.
The demand for radical action was prompted by the Virginia justices, including one appointed by then-Democratic governor Mark Warner, who found the Democratic effort unconstitutional. It does not matter that leading Democrats, including Gov. Abigail Spanberger, also believed that the Democrats could be found in violation of the state constitution in pushing forward with the controversial effort to virtually extinguished Republican representation in the purple state.
[…]
Elias responded to the loss by invoking language from Article I of the Virginia Constitution itself:
“whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal.”
That is his response to a well-reasoned decision of unconstitutionality of a redistricting plan. We can scrap the entire Virginia government
It is another example of the “by any means necessary” culture of the left today. There is no institution or value that is sacred. This is why I recently wrote about the rise of “the new Jacobins” in my book Rage and the Republic, lawyers and law professors rationalizing the trashing of the Constitution and our institutions to achieve their political goals.
Elias has long been controversial for his tactics.
It was Elias who was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it secretly funded the infamous Steele dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was later indicted but acquitted).
Clinton campaign officials denied any involvement in the Steele Dossier. When journalists discovered after the election that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the Steele dossier as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie, they were reportedly stonewalled. The campaign was ultimately sanctioned by the Federal Election Commission for the subterfuge.