On Friday the Supreme Court of Virginia overturned the action of Governor McAuliffe restoration of voting rights to over 206,000 felons. Undaunted by the court’s action, McAuliffe vowed to restore those rights, using numerous autopens to do it. The Governor issued this statement after the court’s ruling,
“Once again, the Virginia Supreme Court has placed Virginia as an outlier in the struggle for civil and human rights. It is a disgrace that the Republican leadership of Virginia would file a lawsuit to deny more than 200,000 of their own citizens the right to vote. And I cannot accept that this overtly political action could succeed in suppressing the voices of many thousands of men and women who had rejoiced with their families earlier this year when their rights were restored.
“Forty states give citizens who have made mistakes and paid their debt to society a straightforward process for restoring voting rights. I remain committed to moving past our Commonwealth’s history of injustice to embrace an honest process for restoring the rights of our citizens, and I believe history and the vast majority of Virginians are on our side.
“Despite the Court’s ruling, we have the support of the state’s four leading constitutional experts, including A.E. Dick Howard, who drafted the current Virginia Constitution. They are convinced that our action is within the constitutional authority granted to the Office of the Governor.
“The men and women whose voting rights were restored by my executive action should not be alarmed. I will expeditiously sign nearly 13,000 individual orders to restore the fundamental rights of the citizens who have had their rights restored and registered to vote. And I will continue to sign orders until I have completed restoration for all 200,000 Virginians. My faith remains strong in all of our citizens to choose their leaders, and I am prepared to back up that faith with my executive pen. The struggle for civil rights has always been a long and difficult one, but the fight goes on.”
More here.
6 comments
Let’s challenge each autopen, let’s cut the autopen funding, let’s highlight this disrespect for the law.
Let’s also laugh when all of your ideas fail miserably. You may have forgotten that both parties in the lawsuit stipulated that the governor has the power to grant these requests individually.
Now you’re just being negative. The army of autopens doing the same thing that violates the spirit and letter of the law is certainly worth challenging.
There’s a box of straws on my kitchen counter if you’d like to grab for another one. I wouldn’t put it past McAulliffe for him to attend a legislative session and give his “report” by reading each one of the 200,000+ orders word-for-word until Howell & Friends can’t take any more of it.
I will bet our GOP delegates and senators can be more obnoxious to him than he can be to them. This felon pardon thing plays right into Trump’s law and order thing.
Why does his political opposition keep stepping into these potholes?
Autopen to start in 5-4-3-2-1 seconds.
There is no way he can individually examine each ex-felon record for approval so he will simply sign each order as fast as possible using an autopen. The question is whether the court will consider this contempt of court or just ho-hum the entire situation.