Virginia Republicans may try to block Gov. Terry McAuliffe's executive order that restores the voting rights of more than 200,000 felons, charging it's a breach of the Old Dominion State's constitution.
McAuliffe, a Democrat, last week
signed an order that allows 206,000 violent and nonviolent felons now free to regain their right to vote in the state.
But Bill Howell, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, tells
The Weekly Standard that McAuliffe's broad powers as governor do not include issuing a blanket clemency.
Some Republicans are considering pursuing a legal challenge to the order, because it would have to be settled in the courts, he added.
Rob Bell, a Republican delegate running for attorney general next year, told The Standard he is worried the order's "poisonous" policy implications could benefit felons who have not paid restitution to their victims.