McAuliffe statement on brief filed by AG on rights restoration

Governor Terry McAuliffe released the following statement after Attorney General Mark Herring filed a brief with the Virginia Supreme Court in the restoration of rights case.

“Attorney General Mark Herring’s brief filed today with the Virginia Supreme Court provides a clear and compelling case that the Republican lawsuit is a frivolous and partisan attempt to strip the civil rights of more than 200,000 Virginia citizens. The suggestion that Republican leaders or any other individual has been injured by my grant order is absurd, and the plaintiffs have failed to make a valid case for why this suit should move forward at all, much less why the Court should disrupt its calendar to expedite a meritless lawsuit. General Herring’s brief supports the statements of leading constitutional and legal authorities who agree that I have absolute authority under the Virginia constitution to restore the rights of these individuals. Five thousand men and women have already registered to vote, and it is distressing to think that any elected official would expend public resources attempting to take away that right based solely on partisan motives.”