Virginia Supreme Court Declines Review in Board Picks Case
The Virginia Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked Governor Glenn Youngkin’s board picks from taking their seats after a Democrat-led Senate committee rejected their nominations. Now the legal fight will return to the Circuit Court.
Earlier this year, the Privileges and Elections Committee rejected multiple board picks. Youngkin argued that it would take action by the full Senate—not just the committee—to block his appointments and that nominees should serve until rejected. State Democrats sued, and a Fairfax Circuit Court judge issued an injunction in July to prevent rejected board appointments from serving. State attorney general Jason Miyares, a Republican, challenged the ruling, and Virginia’s Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case last month.
“Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed the Senate P&E Committees authority to reject gubernatorial nominations because MAGA rules don’t work in Virginia where we still have a rule of law that Youngkin and Miyares have to follow,” Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat, wrote on X following the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision Monday morning.
Youngkin’s office blasted the decision in a statement to Inside Higher Ed.
“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court of Virginia has refused to decide whether or not one committee of one chamber in the General Assembly can unilaterally, with merely a handful of members of one party, remove incredibly qualified public servants who have been serving Virginia’s higher education institutions admirably for months,” the governor said in the statement.
“The Senate committee did so without debate or reasoning or providing an opportunity for input from any of the 100 members of the House of Delegates or a majority of the members of the Senate. That is not what the Constitution prescribes. It will be important for the next administration to stand for the Constitution, as the case will now continue at the trial court level.”
Democrats have rejected other appointments as the legal battle has played out, leaving boards with multiple vacancies and George Mason University without a quorum.
Now Youngkin will need a lower court to move quickly to seat his board appointments, since his term is up in January and he will be succeeded by Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat. Spanberger, who will have a Democratic majority in both houses of the General Assembly, will have an opportunity to reshape governing boards that are currently stocked with GOP donors and conservative figures that Youngkin favored during his term.
Board vacancies at the University of Virginia have prompted calls from both UVA faculty and Spanberger to halt the ongoing presidential search. Spanberger has urged the board to hold off on hiring a new president until her picks are confirmed by state lawmakers early next year.
