Judge to rule soon on Virginia Senate’s rejection of college board appointees

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Frieden expects to rule by Tuesday night, July 29, on an injunction that would prevent three state university boards from recognizing eight gubernatorial appointees rejected by a state Senate committee, just as George Mason University‘s board of visitors is scheduled to discuss President Gregory Washington’s performance next Friday.

Nine Virginia Senate Democrats sued the three rectors of the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute and George Mason to prevent them from seating the eight rejected board appointees named by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin over the past five months. The appointees 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.

Meanwhile, George Mason’s president remains under heavy federal scrutiny as the Trump administration has launched four federal probes into the university over the past four weeks. Two investigations are led by the U.S. Department of Education and the other two by the U.S. Department of Justice. Critics, including state and federal legislators and faculty members, say that the investigations into alleged sex and race bias in hiring and promotions that discriminate against white and male candidates, as well as alleged failure to protect Jewish students and staff from antisemitism on campus, are politically motivated and targeted to try to drive out Washington.

Friday’s hearing was focused on technical legal arguments rather than explosive political conjecture, but the gist of the hearing comes down to whether the state Senate’s Privileges & Elections Committee has the right to reject gubernatorial appointees on its own during a special session, or if the entire General Assembly has to be called to vote on the matter.

The plaintiffs’ attorney said there is no precedent for calling the entire House and Senate to vote on each appointee outside of regular session, and the rectors, represented by Christopher Michel, an attorney with Quinn Emanuel who stepped in for the state attorney general’s office, argued that the status quo — in other words, board members serving until they are rejected by legislature’s vote — should hold until the entire General Assembly is able to vote on the matter.

Frieden said he expected to rule on the injunction by Tuesday evening, and he expected the losing side to send arguments to stay the motion on Wednesday morning, with the winning side responding by Wednesday evening, and that the judge would issue a second ruling by the morning of Aug. 1 — when the George Mason board plans to meet at 9 a.m. On its agenda released Friday, the board plans to discuss Washington’s performance in closed session at 11 a.m.

Virginia Sen. Scott Surovell, the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, was at court Friday and said afterward to reporters that GMU Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson, an official at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, had taken “aggressive” steps to include the disputed four board members on committee assignments, including the powerful executive committee, and that the rejected appointees had also been involved in discussions this summer of Washington’s performance.

“The rector of the Mason board seems to think the law doesn’t apply to him,” Surovell said after the hearing Friday. Asked if there is any recourse if Stimson recognized the four rejected appointees in violation of the judge’s ruling if it is in the senators’ favor, Surovell said, “If you don’t honor a judge’s injunction, you typically go to jail.”

Meanwhile, U.Va.’s board released Friday a list of the members of a committee that will evaluate candidates to replace former U.Va. President Jim Ryan, who resigned in June under pressure from the federal government. The Trump administration accused Ryan of slow-walking the dismantling of the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion office and programs after the university’s board directed him to do so in a March vote.

On Thursday, House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott said during a news conference that U.Va.’s board “probably should put a freeze on any hiring, because we will not support whatever it is that they do,” calling the board “illegitimate,” and adding that the gubernatorial appointees have “been told that they will not be appointed permanently.”