The state Supreme Court has dismissed a legal challenge over a disputed seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.
Justices, in an order released Thursday afternoon, said the parties filing the challenge failed to satisfy a requirement to provide 30 days notice in advance of suing state agencies.
The justices noted that because the case did not meet that standard, no other legal questions were addressed.
At issue was a House of Delegates seat originally won by Joseph de Soto, now a pre-trial defendant on home confinement on charges that he threatened the delegates who would have been his colleagues. De Soto, who was elected as a Republican, changed his affiliation to Democrat the day before his arrest.
After de Soto did not appear at the Capitol to be sworn in at the start of the legislative session, a majority of delegates voted for his seat to be vacated. Gov. Patrick Morrisey appointed Republican Ian Masters, a lawyer who is president of the gun rights organization Citizens Defense League, to take the seat.
Democrats argued that the House majority’s process ran afoul of the state Constitution and also that state law and precedent say a Democrat should be named to the seat. Democrats asked the West Virginia Supreme Court for review, naming Morrisey in his official capacity.
The filing by Democrats contended the House of Delegates acted inconsistently by vacating the seat won by de Soto since he was among seven elected delegates who were not present to take the oath of office on the organizational day — but he was the only one knocked out in perpetuity.
After de Soto was not seated, the House majority then went a step farther by introducing a resolution to declare the seat vacant.
The vacancy was declared on the grounds of Article XI, Section 16 of the West Virginia Constitution. A key portion of that section says: “Any member who shall refuse to take the oath herein prescribed, shall forfeit his seat.”
Debate among some delegates then focused on whether de Soto’s failure to take the oath of office because of the arrest and home confinement constitutes refusal to do so.
That’s a point that the Democratic Party asked the state Supreme Court to resolve. A question being directed to the justices is “Whether the House of Delegates can declare vacant the seat of a duly elected, qualified, and ready-to-serve delegate for reasons related to misconduct.”
The regular session of the state Legislature is now 30 days in, the halfway mark.
Masters, the Berkeley County resident who was named to the disputed seat, has been serving throughout that time.