CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to hear the appeal of a Fairfax County circuit judges granting of an injunction prohibiting the seatings of eight Senate committee-rejected university board members, including former state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors.
The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee last June rejected the Governor Youngkin appointees, and the Youngkin Administration responded by contending the committee did not reflect the entire jurisdiction of the General Assembly and the members could sit.
Charlottesville Democratic State Senator Creigh Deeds was one of those on the Democrat-majority committee that voted 8-to-4 to reject appointees and is among those who petitioned the Fairfax court for the injunction.
Deeds told Cville Right Now after the Fairfax court’s injunction, “The decision… is plainly obvious for anybody who’s ever read the Virginia code, the Constitution, or followed legislative procedure.”
“The committees are how the General Assembly acts,” Deeds said.
In the July 29 Circuit Court ruling, Judge Jonathan D. Frieden wrote, “The Senate’s rejection of the Confirmation Resolution, by and through the vote of the committee charged by the Senate of reviewing the resolution and determining whether it should advance or die in the committee, constitutes the refusal of the General Assembly to confirm the Disputed Appointees.”
A state Supreme Court notification dated November 17 states, “Having reviewed the record, along with its parties’ written and oral arguments, the Court refuses the petition for review files in this case.”
In September, the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee by the same vote rejected Youngkin appointees James Harris of Charlottesville; James Donovan of Upperville; Eugene Lockhart of Palm Beach, FL; and Calvert Saunders Moore of Locust Valley, NY to the University of Virginia Board of Visitors.
While the Fairfax injunction and this Supreme Court refusal to hear an appeal applies only to the Cuccinelli appointment, neither Harris, Donovan, Lockhart, nor Moore have sat in UVA board meetings since that injunction ruling.
Cuccinelli attended, and made a motion that was approved, in one board meeting in June, but has not sat on the board since the injunction.
Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger alluded to the five vacancies in her letter to Rector Rachel Sheridan and Vice Rector Porter Wilkinson urging a pause in the Presidential selection process until new members are appointed and confirmed to the Board following her inauguration.
