Court upholds lower-court ruling blocking MAGA appointees to college BOVs

The Virginia Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from lame-duck MAGA Attorney General Jason Miyares aimed at seating a raft of MAGA appointees to boards of visitors at the University of Virginia, VMI and George Mason who had been rejected by a State Senate committee.

Good news: Miyares won’t be around for much longer to try his frivolous lawsuits, so it would seem that the matter involving the effort to enshrine the MAGA-fication of higher education in Virginia is coming to its end.

“Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed the Senate P&E Committee’s 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, D-Fairfax, posted on his socials on Monday, referencing the Supreme Court decision in the case.

Surovell is overstating things there a bit; the Supreme Court ruling actually only refers to an injunction in the case, not the merits of the legality of the challenge of Senate Democrats to the effort to have the MAGA appointees seated.

The Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, referred to in the Surovell post quoted here, had rejected the appointments made by the lame-duck MAGA governor, Glenn Youngkin, earlier this year, and a group of Senate Democrats, led by Surovell, filed suit to challenge a push by Youngkin to seat the appointees as the constitutional power struggle played out.

---

ICYMI

• Virginia Senate committee casts vote against Youngkin BOV appointees

---

A lower court issued a preliminary injunction in the summer suspending eight of the MAGA appointees to the BOVs at UVA, VMI and Mason from being able to serve as the litigation was to run its course.

Miyares, who was defeated in his bid for re-election earlier this month by Democrat Jay Jones, had asked for the temporary injunction to be lifted to allow the board appointees to be seated.

The Supreme Court ruling handed down on Monday allows the injunction to stand, and for the case involving the appointments to proceed.

The lame-duck-ness of both Youngkin and Miyares, whose terms end on Jan. 17, would seem to spell the effective end of the proceedings.