Category: Civil Rights, Individual Liberties
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A Letter to an Old Friend
by James C. Sherlock This article is rendered as a letter responding to an old friend and mentor, the University of Virginia, my alma mater. I can imagine the University’s response to my last article on its culture: The changes we have experienced in the culture of the University, its pervasive progressivism, which some may…
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The Abortion Hypocrisy of Glenn Youngkin
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin recently told a forum organized by The Family Foundation that life begins at conception. I agree with that statement. He went on to say that he wanted to “protect life.” However, he said that he would be willing to settle for a bill that prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of…
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Impact of Supremes’ Roe v. Wade Ruling Way Overstated
by Ken Reid Should Governor Glenn Youngkin succeed in getting the Virginia General Assembly to curb abortion in Virginia from 25 weeks of pregnancy (at present) to 15, some 97% of abortions will still be protected, according to 2019 stats from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, in six of the eight…
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Prosecutors Who Won’t Do Their Jobs
by Kerry Dougherty Two local prosecutors just earned an A in both Fearmongering 101 and Grandstanding 101. Ramon Fatehi of Norfolk and Stephanie Morales of Portsmouth used the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe V Wade to summon the press and draw attention to, well, themselves. The duo pronounced themselves “horrified” that the highest court would…
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Virginia Law, Abortion, Expectant Mothers and Medical Professionals
by James C. Sherlock To clarify for those who misunderstand or knowingly misrepresent the statements of Republican leaders in the General Assembly concerning a new law on abortion, a woman aborting her unborn child is not proposed to be the subject of legal sanctions. The targets in the mainstream Republican proposals being developed for a new abortion…
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They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
by Jim McCarthy A month ago, a Bacon’s Rebellion column (“Commonwealth Attorney Nullification“) took issue with a national newspaper op-ed in which a Commonwealth’s Attorney pledged he would never prosecute a woman for having an abortion, no matter what Virginia law might say. The BR author suggested that such thinking would lead to anarchy. The…
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Roe v Wade Is Gone
by Kerry Dougherty I hate writing about abortion. Americans are not persuadable on the topic. Minds are made up. But here is what I will say about Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade: Any lawyer who understands the Constitution will privately admit that the 1973 decision was always on shaky ground. An over-reaching…
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Is Virginia’s Lab School Law Constitutional?
by James C. Sherlock The Governor and General Assembly may wish to look at Virginia’s new laboratory schools law in light of the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2022 Carson v. Makin (Carson) decision. Held: Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause. The facts of Carson, in which Maine spent…
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Virginia’s Plan to Attack Gun Violence — Will It Survive?
by David Toscano It has been [a month] since the shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, took 31 lives and once again crystallized the need for more effective measures to combat these outrages. It is not clear whether Congress can summon the will for even the most minor of reforms, but our leaders…
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The “Occasional” Butchery of Children
By James C. Sherlock The New York Post wrote recently: At 12 years old, Chloe Cole decided she was transgender. At 13, she was put on puberty blockers and prescribed testosterone. At 15, she underwent a double mastectomy. Less than a year later, she realized she’d made a mistake. Note the gracious acceptance of agency…
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After Getting Fined, Del Rio Deletes Twitter Account
by James A. Bacon Last week, Jack Del Rio, the defensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders (formerly known as the Redskins) created a mini-furor when he referred to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol a “dust up.” His remark proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, effectively killing (for…
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Thinking About Gun Control
by Bill O’Keefe After each mass shooting there is an outcry for Congress to do something. In 2021, there were almost 21,000 murders involving guns and almost 700 mass shootings (those involving four or more victims). There has been no responsible action at the Federal level because Congress seems more interested in political food fights…
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Right Decision, Terrible Reason
by James A. Bacon The decision to spike a deal to lure the Washington Commanders football team to Virginia has fallen apart. Commanders CEO Daniel Snyder had enlisted some bipartisan support for a proposal to create a Football Stadium Authority to finance construction of a stadium and a “mini city” around it in Loudoun County,…
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Fairfax County and Protection of Supreme Court Justices Revisited
by James C. Sherlock In response to the adjacent exhortation by Fairfax County from its home page, I am speaking up. Defend the homes of the Supreme Court Justices who live in your county. I offer breaking news to many who only read and watch progressive media, including the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Justice Kavanaugh…
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A Proposal to Mitigate Gun Violence
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In an interesting development, one of the so-called “progressive” Virginia prosecutors has identified a direct link between someone committing misdemeanor offenses and later committing violent felony offenses. The misdemeanor offenses that are predictors are gun offenses. After tracking violent case histories, Ramin Fatehi, the commonwealth’s attorney for Norfolk, as reported by WAVY…