Posted on 07/22/2016 3:26:13 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
WASHINGTON — The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down executive orders issued by Gov. Terry McAuliffe that would have allowed more than 200,000 felons to register to vote and participate in the November presidential election.
The decision, issued late Friday, requires registrars to strike the names of any felons who registered to vote under the umbrella of three executive orders McAuliffe signed this year. The order gives county and state officials a month to strike those names.
Chief Justice Donald Lemons wrote the decision. Three justices issued dissenting opinions.
In April, McAuliffe restored the civil rights of felons who had completed their sentence and paid their fines. The rights restored included the right to vote, the right to serve on a jury and to serve as a notary. Gun rights are restored through a separate process, which is handled by the courts.
Virginia law grants the governor the power to grant pardons and past administrations have restored the rights of felons on a case-by-case basis. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell and McAuliffe have each tried to accelerate the pace of restorations and to streamline the paperwork intensive and sometimes arbitrary process.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Great news. Obama, Hillary, Bill, and so many other Democrats flip the wee birdie, and proceed as they well please seemingly always getting away with it. It’s good to see one such of them as is McAwful get trampled by a righteous court.
I hope to see this happen more often in the near future.
<< I am shocked by how quickly the decision was released. I think it had somewhat to do with the Governor’s office refusing to release the names. >>
There was an account that the Dems forgot that getting rights restored also meant getting gun rights back, too. A local county government charged with implementing CCW and the like asked for a list of the names which McAuliffe’s office did NOT want to provide, for obvious reasons.
Sorry scummy filthbag McAuliffe, now go sit down and stfu pos.
Criminals are the DemocRats’ natural constituency.
I see what you did there . . .
Dear friend:
Huge victory! Late this afternoon, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that Governor McAuliffe’s executive order granting a blanket restoration of rights to felons was unconstitutional.
This is a triumph for the Constitution and the rule of law. The Court directly rebuked the Governor, saying “Although the Governor is entitled to champion his views, he cannot do so in contravention of law.” Read the whole opinion here.
For the last 3 months, Governor McAuliffe has been trumpeting his executive order, even as numerous problems were found. McAuliffe signed it despite Governors Kaine and McDonnell concluding that such action was unconstitutional. Today’s ruling proves that in Virginia, at least, no one is above the law, and the Constitution exists to restrict unlawful actions, even by the Governor.
I was proud to help lead this historic effort, but many deserve thanks. Once General Assembly Republicans decided to sue the Governor, voters Bill Cleveland, Marianne Gearhart, Brett Hall, and William Slemp agreed to serve as petitioners. Our lawyers did an outstanding job preparing briefs and arguing the case. Ultimately, our arguments based on history and the text of the Constitution carried the day.
Sincerely,
Rob Bell
Delegate, 58th District
Evil never sleeps...
https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/newsarticle?articleId=16047#sthash.87uY1y8U.uxfs
Governor McAuliffe Statement on the Virginia Supreme Court Decision on the Restoration of Civil Rights
” ...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.”
There better be a way to make sure the "state officials" comply. Otherwise, this decision will be a nullity.
Then if she steps in it and criticizes it, Mrs. Clinton, should they have their gun rights restored as well? All they have to do is ask. Her answers are instant campaign commercials.
lol
Kaine is now official. My morning paper says, neutrally, that he accepted $160,000 in gifts as governor. But no matter! A recent Supreme Court decision cleared former Repub. Gov. McConnell of accepting a lesser value of gifts and vacated his prison sentence. If the dems are faced with concerns over Keane or Clinton gift grabbing, they’ll just quote the Supreme Court.
yeah, well....that was the plan....
ha!
(I personally could actually favor restoring felons’ civil rights after they’ve served their time. But not as a ploy to fix an election that is on the immediate horizon. That would be just too darned obviously corrupt, imho.)
Politically, this is a win for conservatives. We all know that the only reason McAwful signed those EOs was to buy more Democrat votes. So this undoes that bad political decision.
But I’d like to think beyond the political. I’d like to think that someone who has served his time should have his rights restored. If he is not a full citizen or is somehow still dangerous, then he should not be out loose in society. Permanent loss of voting rights is the sort of thing that the Dems would deploy against conservatives, given half a chance. They will start manufacturing reasons to go after conservatives on felony charges. Tax issues, gun issues, provoked attacks, etc, etc.
Possibly there are a few crimes for which one should permanently lose one’s right to vote, or maybe the right to vote should be suspended until the end of the full sentence even if someone gets out early on parole, etc. But I think this issue is worth careful consideration. I think we should think carefully about what it means to “pay your dues to society”.
http://time.com/4348675/terry-mcauliffe-hillary-clinton-china-investigation/
meant to include you to my #76
We agree about restoring the rights of criminals who’ve paid their debt to society. I was just objecting to the manner and timing of what occurred, is all. It looked 99 percent like a scheme to rig the current election. Maybe if it’s done later and on a bipartisan basis it will look better. IMHO
Yes, the timing is the key here. It’s all about rigging the election.
The Democrats are desperate. IMO, the last election was rigged and possibly several before that. The Democrats still whine about Bush stealing the election in 2000, but that was rigged for the Democrats, too, and they threw a hissy fit when their illegal maneuvering failed.
that’s what it looked like from here, too, thanks...
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