A court has denied a challenge to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R-VA) process for restoring voting rights for people convicted of a felony and ruled it was filed under the wrong section of the law.
However, the court did criticize the governor’s use of power in the only state in the country that permanently strips civil rights away from felons.
“No one would suggest that Gov. Youngkin’s ‘fully implemented’ system is transparent, or that it gives the appearance of fairness,” the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found in a ruling issued Wednesday and signed by District Judge John A. Gibney Jr.
Youngkin’s method of receiving petitions for relief and deciding whether to rule on them without any explanation is “much like a monarch,” the court said, but nonetheless, “transparency and the appearance of fairness are not the issues in this…
