Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey is just one election away from returning to the General Assembly as a state senator.

But the Democratic Party nominee still won’t have a Virginia law license if he wins the Nov. 5 election over independent Waylin K. Ross, a Petersburg businessman and Mr. Morrissey’s former legislative aide.

The Virginia Supreme Court decided that a three-judge panel got it right last year in stripping Mr. Morrissey of his license to practice law in Virginia for the second time since 2003.

In a 13-page opinion issued July 18, the state’s highest court rejected Mr. Morrissey’s appeal that revocation was too harsh and unwarranted, noting the “sanction was justified” based on the “long notorious book” of discipline imposed against him.

That history of repeated contempt citations, public and private reprimands and license suspension and disbarment shows

Mr. Morrissey’s “un-willingness to practice law in conformity with the rules that govern our profession,” according to the state Supreme Court’s unanimous decision.

The court noted that the new offenses on which Mr. Morrissey was tried date from 2014, or barely a year after a divided state Supreme Court reinstated his law license in 2013 in a 4-3 decision overruling objections from the State Bar.

Mr. Morrissey’s legal team, led by Republican state Sen. William M. “Bill” Stanley Jr., filed a litany of objections to the panel’s findings, but the high court rejected them all.

Along with his record, the Virginia Supreme Court noted Mr. Morrissey’s 2014 conviction in Henrico Circuit Court of contributing to the delinquency of a minor regarding his sexual relationship with his 17-year-old receptionist, who is now his wife, and his attempt to shift blame to others after being caught bear on “his honesty and trustworthiness” as a lawyer.

Mr. Morrissey commuted from the Henrico jail in 2015 to the House of Delegates, the first legislator ever to do so.

The court also upheld a finding that he allowed a young licensed attorney who had not taken an oath before starting practice to appear in court in his stead in 2014 to handle the dismissal of charges against a client.

In response to the decision, Mr. Morrissey’s legal team stated, “Both our client and we are extremely disappointed that the Supreme Court did not reverse the three-judge panel’s ruling.”

The legal team stated that they will seek to have Mr. Morrissey’s law license reinstated “at the earliest opportunity,” although the State Bar and the Virginia Supreme Court do not have to consider his application for at least five years.