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A federal court gave final approval Thursday to the redrawn Virginia House of Delegates map that a court-appointed expert created to resolve the state’s long-running racial gerrymandering case. 

In a 2-1 opinion, judges for the Richmond-based Eastern District of Virginia ordered the state to adopt the map created by University of California-Irvine political science professor Bernard Grofman.  The map could boost Democrats’ chances of taking control of the House later this year by tilting six GOP-held districts toward Democrats and imperiling the re-election campaigns of two top Republicans. 

Republicans had called Grofman’s map “legally indefensible,” saying it “attempts to give Democrats an advantage at every turn.” 

Judges Barbara Milano Keenan and Arenda Wright Allen rejected that assertion. 

“Nothing in the record suggests that Dr. Grofman acted with animus toward any incumbents, or toward any party,” the judges wrote. “ We credit Dr. Grofman’s contention that he constructed his proposals without regard to partisan outcome in the non-challenged districts, and that he treated all incumbents equally.”