Court Upholds Injunction Stopping Youngkin Appointees From Serving On University Boards

The Supreme Court of Virginia upheld a preliminary injunction by the Fairfax County Circuit Court to prevent four appointees to the George Mason University Board of Visitors from participating in any activity, meeting, vote or decision as members of the board.

"Having reviewed the record along with the parties' written and oral arguments, the Court refuses the petition for review filed in this case," the Virginia Supreme Court said, on Monday. The decision denied the appeal filed in August by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

On July 29, Circuit Court Judge Jonathan D. Frieden granted the injunction in response to a complaint filed mid-July by State Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) on behalf of the senate.

The complaint contended Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, circumvented the Virginia General Assembly in making appointments to the boards of visitors of several state universities, including GMU. The state legislature has exclusive authority to confirm or refuse confirmation of gubernatorial appointments to university boards of visitors, according to the lawsuit.

"Supreme Court of Virginia has affirmed the Senate P&E Committees authority to reject gubernatorial nominations because MAGA rules don't work in Virginia where we still have a rule of law that Youngkin and Miyares have to follow," said Virginia Senate Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) in an X post.

Frieden’s injunction directed Charles Stimson, rector of the GMU board of visitors, to not permit the four disputed GMU appointees from participating in any board activities, decisions, or votes, or participate in meetings, both public and in closed session. The four disputed Youngkin appointees are Charles J. Cooper, William D. Hansen, Maureen Ohlhaussen and Caren Marrick.

The July injunction also affected four other Youngkin appointees to the boards of visitors of two other public universities in Virginia:

• University of Virginia: Kenneth Cuccinelli
• Virginia Military Institute: Jonathan Hartsock, Stephen Reardon and Jose J. Suarez

"We will not allow intimidation of our college administrators or the silencing of our students by right wing ideologues who want to use our universities as a social experiment," Lucas said, in a statement posted on X. "We will take all actions necessary to protect our higher education system from these attacks."

The injunction also prevented any of the disputed appointees from serving on any standing committees or boards and from being appointed to any board office either by assignment or as a replacement.

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"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,” Lucas said, in July. “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. The Code of Virginia makes it crystal clear that appointees to Virginia’s public colleges and universities are under the constitutional authority of the General Assembly.”