Herring, a Democrat who as a state senator voted against the redistricting plan, will send an attorney to represent the Virginia State Board of Elections, Kelly said.

Lawmakers have repeatedly denied accusations of racial gerrymandering, using federal preclearance laws as a defense.

Virginia was one of several mainly Southern states that under the 1965 Voting Rights Act were required to obtain federal preclearance to change voting laws because of the states’ history of racial discrimination.

But last summer, in Shelby County v. Holder, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act and its formula for requiring preclearance as unconstitutional based on current conditions.

“The plaintiffs claim that the commonwealth is hiding behind the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance requirement, which was still in effect when the redistricting plan was passed, as its justification for a supposedly illegal redistricting plan,” said Henry L. Chambers Jr., a professor of constitutional law at the University of Richmond.