Judge Toby Heytens, who was nominated by President Biden to the Fourth Circuit court of appeals, wrote a unanimous opinion that affirmed a lower court order allowing voters in Virginia to sue state officials and seek to invalidate felon disenfranchisement provisions in the Virginia state constitution. The December 2024 decision was in King v Yongkin.
What happened in this case?
Tati Abu King and Toni Heath Johnson both live in Virginia, but they cannot register to vote there because the state constitution forbids those convicted of felonies such as felony drug possession from doing so. In 2023, they filed suit against Virginia’s Governor and other state officials, contending that the prohibition on registration by those convicted of felonies violates a provision of the 1870 Virginia Readmission Act, under which Virginia was readmitted to the union after the civil war. The 1870 law specifies that the state constitution cannot be revised to prohibit voting by anyone convicted of a felony that was not a felony until after 1870, but later state constitutional amendments in Virginia did exactly that.
The district court rejected the state officials’ sovereign immunity defense against the lawsuit and permitted it to go forward. The state officials appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
How did Judge Heytens and the Fourth Circuit rule and why is it important?
Judge Heytens’ unanimous opinion made clear that the lawsuit against Virginia state officials under the Readmission Act can go forward and is not barred by sovereign immunity. He very carefully did not express a view about “which side has the better argument” about the meaning of the Act, but held that the sovereign immunity defense did not apply under the Eleventh Amendment. The court did rule, however, that Governor Youngkin and Commonwealth Secretary Gee should be dismissed as named defendants because neither of them enforces “the rules restricting voter eligibility,” which is handled by the other state officials, and thus those two are “not proper defendants.”
Judge Heytens’ opinion is obviously important to Toni Heath and Tati Abu King, as well as all other Virginia residents who are currently precluded from voting due to the state constitution’s felon disenfranchisement rule. The ruling may also be significant in other cases concerning sovereign immunity and the Eleventh Amendment, particularly in the Fourth Circuit, which includes Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina. In addition, the decision serves as a reminder of the importance of confirming fair-minded judges to our federal courts.