General Assembly Republicans file contempt motion against Governor McAuliffe

Attorneys for Virginia House of Delegates Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (R-James City), and four Virginia voters say they will file a contempt motion today, Aug. 31, against Governor Terence R. McAuliffe (D) with the Supreme Court of Virginia. 

The petitioners are requesting an order from the Court requiring the Governor and other respondents to show cause for why they should not be held in contempt for violating the Supreme Court’s July 22 decision in Howell v. McAuliffe.

In granting a writ of mandamus against Governor McAuliffe and other respondents, the Court ruled that the governor replaced a general rule with a categorical exception, effectively suspending the constitutional prohibition on felon voting and violating the Constitution of Virginia’s anti-suspension provision. 

The contempt motion argues that the effect of the August 22 action is practically the same as the first set of executive orders, resulting in another unconstitutional suspension of the laws.

“‘The practical effect’ of Governor McAuliffe’s August 22 decision to issue over 200,000 individual restoration orders is precisely the same: his newly announced process will effectively suspend Virginia’s general constitutional prohibition against felon voting for over 200,000 felons,” reads the motion. 

“In both scenarios, the Governor has ‘effectively reframe[d] Article II, Section 1 to say’ what he wants it to say rather than what the People of Virginia actually inscribed in their Constitution.