Washington, D.C. – Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, released the following statement in response to the Virginia Supreme Court finalizing congressional and state legislative maps:

“The unnecessary lesson we take away from the Virginia Redistricting Commission’s failure is that structure matters and that not all commissions are made equal. With the right structure in place, with real independence and with a commitment to a non-partisan outcome, commissions can produce a fair redistricting process that leads to fair maps. Unfortunately, Virginia’s commission design was flawed in its inception and, as we predicted, led to an unacceptable result that does a great disservice to all Virginians. The Commonwealth’s redistricting process needs substantial reforms to prevent another failure grounded in political gridlock in the future.”

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