Judge blocks Youngkin university board appointees

In a win for Virginia Senate Democrats, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of their motion to stop three Virginia universities from recognizing eight gubernatorial board appointees who were rejected by a state Senate committee in June.

The appointees for the universities’ boards of visitors include former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, former state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick and others with significant conservative political and business connections, and the ruling comes as George Mason’s president is under heavy federal scrutiny by the Trump administration, which opened four federal probes into GMU in the past month.

On Friday, Judge Jonathan Frieden heard arguments from the plaintiffs’ attorney, Mark Stancil of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, who said the state Senate’s Privileges & Elections Committee has the right to reject gubernatorial appointees on its own during special sessions, and from Christopher Michel, an attorney with Quinn Emanuel representing the state attorney general’s office for three university rectors, who argued that the entire General Assembly has to be called to vote on the matter.

Frieden’s order letter issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the three rectors of University of Virginia, George Mason University and Virginia Military Institute‘s boards from seating the rejected appointees. In court, Frieden said he expected the losing side — in this case, the defendants — to send an argument to stay the judgment by Wednesday morning, and that the plaintiffs would be able to send a response by Wednesday evening, allowing the judge to rule on the two arguments by Friday morning, when George Mason’s board is set to meet.

The state attorney general’s office said Tuesday that it plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

The nine senators, which include eight members of the Senate Privileges & Elections Committee and Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, sued because Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said that the rejected appointees were still valid members of boards, and appeared to be granting the boards’ rectors the go-ahead to seat the new appointees as legitimate board members.

“The nullification of plaintiffs’ votes constitutes irreparable harm whether the disputed appointees’ continued service on the GMU, U.Va. and VMI boards would result in decisions with which the plaintiffs agreed or disagreed,” Frieden wrote in Tuesday’s decision. He concluded that the state Senate has delegated to the committee the responsibility of confirming or rejecting all gubernatorial appointees to boards, so the committee’s action in June to not confirm the eight university board members was on behalf of the 40-seat Senate.

“Accordingly, the Constitution of Virginia required the rejected appointees to immediately cease their participation on their respective boards. They have not done so,” Frieden wrote. “Instead, following the legal advice of the attorney general, the defendant rectors of the George Mason University and University of Virginia boards of visitors and president of the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors have continued to recognize the rejected appointees as members of their respective governing boards. Moreover, they intend to continue to do so.”

George Mason Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson was ordered to not recognize the votes of the university’s four disputed appointees or include them in closed sessions, special meetings or appoint them to board committees. According to Mason’s board website, one rejected appointee, former Federal Trade Commission chair Maureen Ohlhausen, was named to the powerful executive committee as a member-at-large, and she was made part of the academic programs, diversity and university community committee.

In addition to Ohlhausen and Merrick, Florida attorney Charles J. Cooper and former U.S. deputy secretary of education William D. Hansen are among the rejected appointees to Mason’s board. VMI appointees John Hartsock, deputy chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Ben Cline; Stephen Reardon, an attorney with Spotts Fain; and Jose Suarez, a Florida businessman, are also blocked from participating in its board, as is Cuccinelli’s participation on U.Va.’s board.

“Although we are disappointed in the ruling, we were prepared for this possibility,” Miyares spokesman Shaun Kenney said in a statement. “This case is straightforward. The constitution is clear that it is the General Assembly, not a fraction of a Senate committee, that is authorized to act. We will quickly file an appeal with the Supreme Court of Virginia and are confident in our position.”

U.Va. issued a statement: “The university will comply with today’s ruling and move forward with important university business. As we prepare for the new academic year, the board of visitors and U.Va. leaders remain focused on serving our community and our commonwealth through our education, research and patient care missions.”

Cuccinelli’s photo and bio page were no longer on U.Va.’s BOV webpage as of Tuesday afternoon, and VMI had removed its disputed board members’ online presence as well. George Mason’s board webpage still included the rejected appointees several hours after the ruling.

The hearing was fast-tracked because George Mason’s board is set to meet this week. The agenda calls for a closed session at 11 a.m. Friday to discuss President Gregory Washington’s job performance. Washington’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been specifically targeted in the U.S. Department of Education and Department of Justice investigations, according to letters issued by both departments.

The federal investigations into Mason are centered on alleged race- and sex-based discrimination in hiring and promotion in favor of women and people of color, as well as alleged failure to protect Jewish students and staff from antisemitic attacks.

But critics, including state and federal legislators and faculty members, say that the investigations are politically motivated and targeted to try to drive out Washington, and many have said that the George Mason board, made up entirely of Youngkin appointees, has failed to support the university president.

Democratic state Sen. Aaron Rouse, chair of the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee, said in a statement that the ruling “is a victory for the rule of law, for the Senate’s constitutional role, and for the people of Virginia. It also sends a clear message that attempts to impose political control over our public universities, whether from Richmond or Washington, will not go unchecked.” 

In her own statement, Lucas said, “The Trump-Youngkin administration launched another blatant partisan power grab, this time targeting some of the top universities in the country, right here in Virginia. Once again, they tried to break the law in their attempt to force our progressive university leaders to bow to their will, but today they failed.”

VMI and George Mason did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.