The Virginia Supreme Court has let stand a lower court injunction that blocks 22 of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointments to the governing boards of George Mason University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Military Institute.
The court did not rule on the merits of Attorney General Jason Miyares’ appeal of a July 29 ruling by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Frieden. The Fairfax judge upheld the state Senate Privileges and Elections Committee’s authority to refuse to confirm eight of Youngkin’s appointments to the three boards of visitors.
The committee then rejected an additional 14 of the governor’s appointments to the three boards, which stand on the front line of a political battle over control of higher education under President Donald Trump.
The higher court’s one-page decision declines Miyares’ request that it review Frieden’s decision to block the disputed appointees from serving on the boards. With Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Jay Jones set to take office Jan. 17 as governor and attorney general, respectively, the court’s decision effectively ends the appeal and leaves the appointments to the new governor.
"I’m happy that the court chose not to take that up," said state Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, chairman of the Privileges and Elections Committee. "It’s a good day for Virginia."
"It just goes to show that in Virginia, we believe in the separation and balance of powers," Rouse added.
Rouse and eight other Democrats — seven members of the committee and President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth — filed the lawsuit against the leaders of the three boards after Miyares and Youngkin had advised the universities that the state Senate committee could not block the governor’s appointments without the concurrence of the entire General Assembly.
Frieden ruled that the committee’s vote represented the legislature’s refusal to confirm the appointments, based on its authority under Senate rules. The appointees cannot take their seats or participate on the boards without the approval of both chambers of the assembly, he said.
"The public interest is served by ensuring that the will of the voters is manifested, through ensuring the proper exercise of both the Governor’s power to appoint and the General Assembly’s power to confirm," the Fairfax judge wrote. "Here, a preliminary injunction is necessary to do that."
The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the George Mason board, scheduled to meet in early December, without a quorum to do business because it blocks 10 of the governor’s appointees from serving. As a result, the board cannot act to remove George Mason President Gregory Washington — the institution’s first Black president — who is under heavy pressure from the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress over alleged discrimination in university hiring, promotions and appointments.
The Senate committee also blocked seven of the governor’s appointments to the VMI Board of Visitors, which voted in late February to not extend the contract of Gen. Cedric Wins, that institute’s first Black superintendent.
It also prevented the seating of five Youngkin appointees to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, which is at the center of an escalating public battle over the sudden resignation of President Jim Ryan in July under pressure from the Trump administration over university policies on diversity, equity and inclusion. Youngkin’s appointments included former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican who lost the governor’s race in 2013 to Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, who was not a plaintiff in the Senate Democrat’s lawsuit but helped guide it, said on social media that the ruling shows that "MAGA rules don’t work in Virginia where we still have a rule of law that Youngkin and Miyares still have to follow."
Source: www.dailyprogress.com