On Thursday Beau Correll went before Judge Robert E. Payne of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to argue that the law is wrong and as a national delegate he shouldn’t be bound to vote for Trump on the first ballot.
Supporting Correll in court was Erling “Curly” Haugland, a Republican Committeeman from North Dakota who co-authored the book Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate. The book was published by Delegates Unbound, a group established to support unbinding the delegates on the first ballot in Cleveland. The group believes that every delegate is free to vote their conscience. At the hearing Haugland testified for an hour sharing his opinion that the delegates can vote their conscience. Haugland said
“Delegates can frequently be taken advantage of if they don’t know their rights”
The Trump campaign hired Jesse R. Binnall, a professional parliamentarian, who told the court that RNC rules require Virginia delegates to vote proportionally, following the results of Virginia’s primary. That would give 17 delegates to Trump, 16 to Sen. Marco Rubio, eight to Sen. Cruz, five to Ohio Gov. John Kasich and three to Dr. Ben Carson.
Lawyers from Attorney General Mark Herring’s office defended the state law along with 8 delegates, Trump supporters who petitioned to be a part of the case. Those supporters include conservative radio talk show host, John Fredericks, and a former supervisor from Loudoun county Eugene Delgaudio.
The results of this hearing could have an effect on 20 other states that have a law similar to Virginia’s. Although Thursday’s hearing lasted 6 hours there was no resolution. Judge Payne will issue his ruling next week, hopefully on Monday.
More on the story here, here, here and here.
