As Goldman and Thomas Fight on Voting Rights, VA NAACP Focuses on Name of Externship

Virginia NAACP Selects Strange Time for Trivia

BLACK POLITICAL REPRESENTATION PLAYS OUT IN COURT. Today, Richmond attorney Paul Goldman will file an appeal in his case to fix unconstitutional House of Delegates districts that do not properly represent the voters who lives in them. Richmond author and academic Jeff Thomas has also filed a lawsuit for members of Virginia’s House of Delegates to run in the proper districts this November. Thomas filed his lawsuit two days after after Judge David Novak ruled that Goldman does not have standing to file his case. This is a technical ruling that has nothing to do with the merits of Goldman’s argument.

The Richmond Times Dispatch pointed out on June 9 that the “2021 elections were supposed to be…held under constitutionally required redistricting based on the 2020 census. But because census results were delayed…the state held elections under the old legislative boundaries.” This violates the constitution.

Goldman filed suit in June of 2021 for there to be elections in the properly drawn districts in 2022. Many elected officials are against the idea because it would require the 100 members of Virginia’s House of Delegates to run three years in a row: 2021, 2022 and 2023 instead of 2021 and 2023.

Though the Virginia NAACP has indicated support in the past for Goldman’s suit, on June 8, Virginia State NAACP released as statement protesting Attorney General Jason Miyares’ naming an externship after legendary civil rights attorney Oliver Hill.

This statement of protest comes at a curious time given that the voting rights battle Goldman has been long waging and now Thomas is waging that directly impacts the political representation of thousands of Black voters in Virginia.

Conservative Washington Post columnist Norm Leahy has now written more about voting rights in Virginia as he focuses on the case of Goldman v. Brink, than the Virginia NAACP.

Pastor Michelle Thomas and attorney Phil Thompson, both African American, attempted to join the case of Goldman and Brink and would certainly have had standing.

Their attempt to join Goldman was blocked by Judge Novak a month ago.