One of Virginia’s delegates to the Republican National Convention has filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to avoid voting for presumptive nominee Donald Trump at the party convention next month.
The delegate, Carroll Correll Jr of Winchester, Virginia, argued in the suit that being forced to vote against his conscience was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Correll said he would not vote for Trump because he believed the billionaire businessman was unfit to serve as president.
Correll’s suit maintained that state law imposed criminal penalties on delegates who did not vote on the first ballot for the winner of the state’s Republican and Democratic primaries.
Trump won Virginia’s Republican primary, while Hillary Clinton won the Democratic contest.
Correll filed the suit on Friday in federal court in Richmond. He seeks a judgment on behalf of all delegates to the Republican and Democratic conventions.