GOP leaders announced Wednesday that they want the Supreme Court of Virginia to consider holding McAuliffe in contempt for his efforts to restore felons’ political rights en masse despite the court’s July 22 opinion that struck down the governor’s first attempt.
The governor’s new process, Republicans argue, has the same effect of subverting Virginia’s longtime policy of barring felons from voting….
McAuliffe said he was complying with the court ruling by restoring rights on an individual basis and promised eventually to restore rights to the nearly 214,000 felons under a new process. In a radio appearance Wednesday, he said his goal is to restore rights for the entire group before his term ends in January 2018.
“After a thorough legal review, it is clear that Governor McAuliffe has once again illegally suspended the Constitution of Virginia,” Howell said. “There is no practical difference between his latest action and his first set of executive orders.”