RICHMOND (AP) – Virginia’s General Assembly elected the first black woman to the state’s Supreme Court on Friday.
Cleo Powell was elected by unanimous votes in the House and the Senate along with Elizabeth A. McClanahan. Both are being elevated from the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Two vacancies had slowed the work flow of the seven-member high court. Powell and McClanahan fill the seats left empty from the retirement of Justice Lawrence Koontz and the death in February of Justice Leroy Hassell.
Partisan disagreement over judicial appointments between the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican House pushed a selection process that’s normally dispatched in February to near August.
Gov. Bob McDonnell sent a tersely-worded letter last week to House and Senate leaders of both parties, bluntly telling them the courts were taking a toll and he was prepared to make the appointments himself.
In the end, the logjam was broken, in part, when the two sides agreed on McClanahan, once top deputy to Republican former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore and the GOP’s choice, and Powell, the a former judge in Chesterfield, who was the favorite of Democrats.
Also, by unanimous votes, the House and Senate elected Stephen R. McCullough, senior appellate counsel to the state Attorney General, and Glen Huff, a Hampton Roads attorney and former law firm partner of McDonnell’s, to fill the vacant Appeals Court seats of Powell and McClanahan.
Some local court vacancies were not filled. A handful of general district and juvenile and domestic relations court posts with caseloads less than the statewide average remain open.
The House and Senate met for only about two hours before lawmakers headed home on another indefinite recess in an on-again, off-again special session for redistricting that began in April.
Negotiators from the House and Senate have yet to break an impasse over conflicting congressional reapportionment plans.
The author of the GOP-blessed House redistricting plan, Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico, said he is believes three senators and three delegates will negotiate a compromise that lawmakers can vote on by Labor Day.
An influential member of the Senate’s Democratic majority and its Privileges and Elections Committee, A. Donald McEachin of Henrico, isn’t so sure.
“Not as long as you have Bill Janis out there saying he’s not willing to compromise,” McEachin said.
If the two sides can’t reach an agreement by the end of the year as Virginia’s Constitution mandates, the issue will likely be left for a federal court to resolve.