Virginia – On Friday, Virginia’s state supreme court blocked governor Terry McAuliffe’s move to restore voting rights to felons that have completed their sentence in a scathing 4-3 opinion that chided the state’s top executive for the “unprecedented scope, magnitude, and categorical nature” of the executive order. Read more in the Wall Street Journal.
- The court emphasized that the governor’s clemency powers were meant to be affected on a case-by-case basis.
- 11,600 former felons are already registered to vote under the now defunct order. Those registrations will now be cancelled per the court’s order.
- Dissenting judges contended that the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing.
- Governor McAuliffe has vowed to restore voting rights to felons on an “individual” basis.
