Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is appealing a lower court decision to bar eight of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s recent appointments to college boards.
Miyares filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court Monday, asserting Fairfax County Judge Jonathan Frieden lacked jurisdiction to issue an injunction on behalf of Democratic state senators, who the appeal claims failed to demonstrate the appointments would cause “irreparable harm.”
“The circuit court entered an unprecedented preliminary injunction on the erroneous premise that nine individual legislators can speak for the General Assembly,” Miyares’ appeal reads. “The court enjoined the heads of three public university boards of visitors to bar recently appointed board members from participating in university governance.”
Miyares’ appeal further argues the injunction incorrectly allows the Senators to bypass constitutional procedures and “aggrandize their roles at the expense of the full General Assembly,” adding that the “Court should vacate it.”
Judge Frieden issued the ruling July 29, stating the General Assembly had refused to confirm Youngkin’s appointments to the governing boards of George Mason University, the University of Virginia, and the Virginia Military Institute.
Frieden cited an 8-4 party-line vote in the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee in June, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
However, Miyares argues the nominations must be acted upon by the full General Assembly.
Miyares further argued in his appeal that the preliminary injunction disrupts the status quo and puts college rectors in the precarious position of barring participation without having the legal authority to do so.
“Preliminary relief also thrusts the judiciary into the still-evolving legislative process, which could otherwise produce an undisputed confirmation or refusal of the Appointees without the need for courts to intervene,” the appeal reads. “The circuit court did not seriously grapple with those considerations.”
Fairfax Democratic Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said in a statement that Miyares “strangely argues that the General Assembly has been confirming people in the wrong way for the last 100 years including the six years he served in the House of Delegates and never said anything.”
Changes made by the Trump administration to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from educational institutions ruffled feathers after Youngkin appointees on the governing board of the Virginia Military Institute voted to oust the institute’s first Black superintendent, Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins.
In late June, UVA President Jim Ryan announced in a press release that he would be leaving his position due to the mounting pressure to resign coming from Washington.
“I cannot make a unilateral decision to fight the federal government in order to save my own job,” Ryan said. “To do so would not only be quixotic but appear selfish and self-centered to the hundreds of employees who would lose their jobs, the researchers who would lose their funding, and the hundreds of students who could lose financial aid or have their visas withheld.”
