Virginia can’t require Republican National Convention delegates to back Donald Trump, a federal judge in Richmond said Monday, though he made no ruling on whether the party can itself bind its delegates.
U.S. District Judge Robert Payne said the Virginia state law requiring delegates who oppose Mr. Trump to vote for him next week at the party’s convention creates “a severe burden” on First Amendment rights.
But Judge Payne explicitly avoided weighing in on whether Republican National Committee rules requiring convention delegates to follow the results of their states as dictated by state and national party rules. Judge Payne said he “lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate” the broader unbinding question.
The Republican Party’s rules explicitly state that they take precedent over state laws and state party rules.
Judge Payne’s ruling has no impact on the rules of the GOP convention, which will be determined by the convention’s Rules Committee when it begins meeting Thursday. A group of anti-Trump delegates have spent recent weeks aiming to build a coalition to unbind convention delegates from Mr. Trump, though their odds of success remain long.
If anti-Trump Republican delegates receive support from at least 28 of 112 delegates on the convention’s Rules Committee, they can put the question of unbinding all delegates to the full convention when it convenes next week. The question would then receive an up-or-down vote from all 2,472 delegates.
Last week, The Wall Street Journal found 20 of 112 Rules Committee delegates considering voting to unbind delegates, though 33 delegates did not respond to requests for comment. Randy Evans, an RNC member from Georgia who is on the Rules Committee, said the full convention is split among pro-Trump delegates, anti-Trump delegates and people whose votes remain “in play.”
The Virginia lawsuit was brought by Beau Carroll, an attorney from Winchester who backed Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign. Mr. Carroll argued being required to vote for Mr. Trump at the convention violated his conscience and he should be liberated to back another candidate.
(Published by The Wall Street Journal - July 11, 2016)