On March 1 2025 during a meeting of Virginia’s 6th Congressional District, conservative leaders, by a 22-1 margin, voted to enjoin a lawsuit which will attempt to overturn a law passed in 2020 which effectively limits voters rights to choose the method of how party nominees are chosen. This lawsuit is being filed by Jeff Adams Esquire of Staunton Virginia. The law in question, which went into effect in January of 2024, stripped political parties of their right to choose their method of nomination. It had the effect of banning party processes to nominate candidates in a general election. It also forced political parties to use open government run primaries that allow Democrats to select our nominees. This is a key civil rights issue. It follows up on the 6th District’s successful legal effort to overturn the Incumbent Protection Act.
This is an effort to protect our rights as a party and not an indictment of our elected representatives. We are proud to be represented by one of the greatest members of Congress in Rep. Ben Cline as well as numerous champions of our conservative values in the General Assembly and local government.
We believe the law in question is a violation of our civil rights and is in violation of both the US and Virginia Constitution.
John Massoud, Chairman of the 6th Congressional District Republican Committee said in the meeting the following words:
“Friends, this is not an indictment of any of our elected representatives, all of whom we support. Pretty much every Republican in the Congressional District supports Ben Cline as our Congressman, and we all believe he’s the best Congressman in the USA. We support our legislators in Richmond and appreciate the hard work they’re putting in. We also support our local elected representatives for all their hard work. We believe that the law in question, which went into effect in January of 2024, is a civil rights lawsuit in which something was stolen from us. And that is our right to select our nominees by a method which we choose, not a process which is imposed on us from Richmond”.
These words were also echoed by nearly every District Committee Member who spoke on the matter, and the vote demonstrated overwhelming support of the lawsuit.
Please call Chairman John Massoud at 703 869 7945 with any questions you may have
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In pursuing a lawsuit, Virginia Republicans need to focus on legal precedent that sheds light on the constitutional issues involved when State laws constrain, limit, or interfere with a political party’s ability to decide how to select its nominees. They should take a look at two decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court — New York State Board of Elections v. Lopez Torres, 552 U.S. 196 (2008) and Washington State Grange v. Washington State Republican Party, 552 U.S. 442 (2008) — for possible insight and guidance on the legal issues involved. And Virginia Republicans need to check on any other federal decisions issued after 2008 that shed light on how the courts have interpreted and applied those two Supreme Court decisions.
John Massoud, have the RPV and the Democrat party ever contested the law? The law restricts nominating methods for all parties so Democrats should object to it too. It was passed in 2021. Do you know what efforts were made, and by whom, to object to the bill during that 2021 Session?
This is the 1st active lawsuit against the law in question.
No one objected before this?? You’ve been involved for a while. Can you give us some backstory about the lead up to getting the law passed. Who pushed it and who objected? Why did republicans vote for it?
It was pushed by then Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn is our best guess. My limited understanding is most Republicans in the 6th Congressional District did not support this. The vote is on the LIS website. I can’t speak for everyone – but CD 6 is so far the only Legislative Committee to fight this oppressive law. Maybe you should ask other Legislative District Committee’s why they didn’t fight this law?
It will be very interesting to see which other districts do join in, and whether the RPV and Democrats do too.
As a follow up, please post a link to the lawsuit filing so we can read it and follow along. Thanks.
i am glad someone is contesting it — albeit kind of late. RPV should have gone to court on this last year. the concern I have is finding GOP delegate candidates who now have to file petitions One needs 125 to get on the ballot for delegate and right now, the statewide candidates are struggling to get 10,000 signatures to get on the June 17 primary ballot and thus the fall ballot. when I ran in 2023 — when the law hadn’t kicked in yet — i just paid a $360 fee to get on the ballot to run for State Senate. It’s hard enough to find Republicans to run for office in Northern Va., and because the new law is murky in terms of enabling overseas and military people to participate in party canvasses, we are stuck with using the open primary. I hope the 6th District is successful in its suit.