A new lawsuit accuses the governing board of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) — one of the nation’s last state military colleges and a primary commissioning source for the armed forces — of conducting the public’s business in the shadows.
The verified petition, filed June 1, 2026 in York County Circuit Court (Morris v. Virginia Military Institute, No. CL26005973-00), alleges that some members of VMI’s Board of Visitors held unnoticed “meetings” by reply-all email and other means about official board business — including the day after their own FOIA officer warned them in writing that doing so was illegal, and despite repeated formal training telling them not to “Reply All.”
It further alleges that VMI withheld, redacted, and even altered public records to obscure how a prominent donor and board member was pushed off the board and the board president was forced to step down.
The specifics are striking. According to the petition, board member Donald Hall publicly admitted he was “the principal negotiator” working with the Virginia General Assembly and said former Governor Ralph Northam “was more involved than anyone in this room knows other than me.”
Yet the suit alleges VMI produced no records at all from Hall, none from the former governor, withheld voicemails and call logs, and redacted the identities of email correspondents.
The petition also alleges that VMI’s FOIA officer altered an online records-portal entry to erase his own name —replacing it with the anonymous label “Staff” — and that a process server hired to deliver public comments on important issues intended for the Board to be informed on was turned away from public open committee meetings.
The filing seeks a ruling that the secret meetings and other actions were unlawful, an order forcing board business onto official accounts and devices, and personal civil penalties of $500–$5,000 per violation against the FOIA officer, a board administrator, and six sitting board members — penalties payable to Virginia’s State Literary Fund, not to the petitioner.
The case carries a question of national resonance: how much should politicians control the governance — and the independence — of public universities, and how much of that maneuvering happens off the public record?
What are the implications of these actions on commissioning sources and military readiness?
It also invites an uncomfortable comparison. In the same period, Gov. Abigail Spanberger removed John Rocovich as rector of Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors — a move he has publicly contested — while the VMI BOV and FOIA staff accused of operating in secret remain in place and operating.
Were the standards applied consistently, and who is really steering Virginia’s military college?
Hellbound and Down 