A Virginia delegate to next week’s Republican convention who filed a lawsuit to prevent himself from having to support Donald Trump won a symbolic victory in court.  

A federal judge ruled on Monday  that delegates cannot be obligated to vote in a winner-take-all fashion as an obscure Virginia law dictates.   

Carroll Correll Jr., who filed the suit, called it “a blow to Trump’s efforts.”  

But the state GOP had already decided to allocate delegates proportionally. Trump won the March 1 primary with about 35 percent of the vote. And officials had already said they weren’t going to prosecute anyone for how they voted at the Republican convention. [

GOP Delegate Would Rather Be Arrested Than Vote for Trump

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But the Trump campaign interpreted  the ruling differently. It issued a press release Monday with the headline “Anti-Trump Effort Dealt Crippling Blow,” spinning the ruling as favorable to the campaign’s argument “that RNC delegates must follow election results and that delegates cannot be stolen at the national convention.”