Jack S. Hurley Jr.

Judge Jack S. "Chip" Hurley Jr. sits on the 29th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, based in Tazewell County in the south-west of the state. Governor Bob McDonnell (R) appointed him to the circuit court in August 2012. The General Assembly had elected him to the 29th Circuit's General District Court in 2005, where he became chief judge. Before that he practised law in south-west Virginia for 19 years, including as a prosecutor for the Town of Tazewell and Bland County. He is a graduate of Davidson College and the University of Richmond's law school.

Hurley became a central figure in Virginia's 2026 redistricting fight. He first blocked the legislature's Mid-decade redistricting process in January 2026. On 22 April, the day after voters approved the redistricting referendum 50.7% to 49.3%, he ruled the authorising House bill void ab initio and permanently enjoined the State Board of Elections from certifying the result. That ruling came in a case brought by the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and Representative Ben Cline.

the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the redistricting amendment 4-3 on 8 May 2026 in Scott v. McDougle, holding that the legislature broke the constitution's intervening-election rule: about 1.3 million ballots in the 2025 general election had been cast before the first of the two required votes. The decision left in place for 2026 the congressional map the Court itself adopted on 28 December 2021, drawn by court-appointed special masters after the state's redistricting Commission deadlocked. It also voided Cook Political Report's conditional shifts of five Virginia House seats towards Democrats, made in late April.