Virginia State Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon) got his way in SEN-24. More from the Daily Press:
The district committee and chairman Kenneth Adams argued the Virginia law that says incumbents can designate the method of nomination violates their First Amendment rights of free association – that is, to say who is a Republican and entitled to a voice in the party’s nomination. Would-be candidate Daniel Moxley says the law discriminates against people who want to challenge Hanger.
But the problem is, said U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Dillon, that the Republican Party of Virginia’s Plan of Organization said district committee can decide the method of nomination only where permitted to do so under Virginia law.
The courts indicated this one was pretty cut and dry, though the bylaws remedy for the State Central Committee would be pretty straightforward — though by striking the provision in Article V, Section D “where permitted to do so under Virginia law” would set the RPV Plan of Organization on a collision course with the Incumbent Protection Act, mostly over the right of free association as permitted under long-standing interpretations of the 1st Amendment.
With Judge Dillon insisting that Republican compliance is somehow “voluntary” that does set up an interesting question. I’ll leave it up to the lawyers in the room to decide the merits and demerits.
UDPATE: Steve Albertson over at The Bull Elephant has a good breakdown of what went wrong. You can read the disappointment, and it’s pretty universally felt on the conservative bench.
