Heytens confirmed for seat on 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Free Press staff report | 11/4/2021, 6 p.m.
The lawyer who won the legal battle to bring down the giant state-owned statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue is on his way to the federal bench.
Toby J. Heytens, Virginia’s solicitor general, secured U.S. Senate confirmation Monday to become a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in Richmond.
Nominated by President Biden on the recommendation of Virginia’s U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, Mr. Heytens will fill a vacancy on the 15-member court that was created when Judge Barbara M. Keenan took senior status in August.
As the state’s solicitor general, Mr. Heytens successfully led the 14-month fight by the state Attorney General’s Office to uphold Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s authority to remove the Lee statue, which many considered the largest symbol of white supremacy in Virginia.
The statue came down after the state Supreme Court agreed with Mr. Heytens’ arguments that a handful of property owners who opposed the statue’s removal could not prevent the state from taking it down. The statue, which had stood for 131 years, no longer expressed state views, Mr. Heytens argued.
Mr. Heytens served as solicitor general for three years, handling cases and appeals to the state’s highest court. He resigned recently and returned to the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law as he awaited the U.S. Senate’s decision on the court appointment.
