CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) As they await the possible appeal of a Circuit Court ruling blocking Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s most recent appointees to university boards at Virginia, George Mason and VMI, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner bemoaned federal interference in Virginia’s institutions of higher education and expressed their disappointment that former UVA president Jim Ryan didn’t receive more support before he resigned under pressure last month.

Kaine blasted Youngkin and attorney general Jason Miyares for failing to resist federal overreach into the Commonwealth’s affairs, saying the Trump administration is “running roughshod over” state universities.

“I have been looking in vain to see the governor and attorney general stand up to mid-level federal bureaucrats thinking they can decide who the president of Virginia universities are going to be,” Kaine said this week.

Warner said he was disappointed the Board of Visitors at UVA didn’t stand up more strongly for Ryan.

“The brutal threats to the University of Virginia that pressed and pressured President Ryan out of his job,” Warner said. “I wish that Board had stood up more for him.”

Neither Warner nor Kaine could offer any predictions of how an appeal of the Circuit Court ruling will fair. Former Republican attorney general Ken Cucinelli is among the appointees nominated by Youngkin by rejected by a state senate committee.

“The question is what is the status of somebody between when they’ve been proposed and when they’ve been confirmed. Are they a member of the board or are they not a member of the board,” Kaine said. “(That’s) a new question, as far as I know. We’ll just have to see about the courts.”

Said Warner: “The general assembly has the ability to reject the governor’s appointment. The question that’s being litigated is whether the committee that voted against these appointments is the same as the whole general assembly. I don’t know how this is going to play out.”