A Virginia delegate to the Republican National Convention has filed a class action lawsuit, challenging the constitutional restraints on binding delegates to presidential candidates.
The lawsuit is being brought by Beau Correll, a criminal defense attorney whose firm is located just outside of Washington, D.C. Correll is involved with the “Free the Delegates” movement, which seeks to unbind all 2,472 GOP delegates at the next month’s convention in Cleveland.
The group gained traction earlier this month following the outrage over Donald Trump’s criticism of a federal judge’s Mexican heritage.
Correll confirmed his involvement but declined to discuss the case in detail when reached by phone on Friday afternoon. He referred additional questions to his attorney, David Rivkin Jr.
Rivkin, a Washington-based constitutional litigator, claimed the existing Virginia delegates binding law “is a clear violation of the speech and associational rights protected by the First Amendment.”
“That Virginia statute clearly violates decades worth of court decisions and a near identical Wisconsin law,” he told the Washington Examiner. “No state has legal authority to regulate political parties’ national conventions or tell the delegate how to cast their convention ballots.”
Asked whether delegates in other states are preparing to file similar lawsuits, a source familiar the Virginia case told the Examiner, “Yes, but that’s for another day.”
According to another source, some delegates involved in the movement to free themselves at the convention have been intimidated by state-level GOP officials. In some cases, the source said, party leaders have threatened to revoke delegates’ credentials to the national convention.
Earlier this week, “Free the Delegates” claimed to have more than 300 national convention delegates committed to their effort. Both the Republican National Committee and Trump have dismissed the movement to unbind delegates, which would potentially open the door for an alternative to Trump.
