Category: Civil Rights, Individual Liberties
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Right to Life March Falls on Deaf Ears as Dobbs Makes Abortion Issue More Difficult for Republicans
by Ken Reid The 50th annual pro-life march took place in DC January 19; it has been held every year since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade, that women had a constitutional protection for abortion, and thus negated 50 state laws regulating the procedure. It was cold and…
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An American Opportunity Story, from Missouri to Virginia
by Dan Stoddard Though some of today’s political leaders and commentators may try to tell us that the American Dream is dead – or was always a myth – they are wrong. America is still the Land of Opportunity. Throughout the country there are countless examples of women and men of humble beginnings who have…
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Covid vs. Religious Freedom at UVA
by James A. Bacon The University of Virginia has paid more than $1.8 million in legal fees fighting a lawsuit filed by UVA Health employees who were fired, despite religious objections, for refusing to take the Covid vaccine. And that’s just through November. Given the continuing litigation, billing has likely passed the $2 million mark.…
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U.S. Constitution Calling Jason Miyares . . .
by Jock Yellott Affirmative action is unconstitutional, said the U .S. Supreme Court last June. But we’ll keep doing it until somebody tells us not to, says Virginia’s Department of Transportation. In some quarters, it seems we’re seeing Massive Resistance to the Supreme Court’s ruling. An especially absurd, and ongoing, affirmative action boondoggle called the…
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Virginia Legislation Would Penalize Lack of Diversity in Firms Seeking Economic Development Aid
by Hans Bader Recent Virginia legislation raises interesting constitutional issues under the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. Virginia legislators have introduced bills that would make corporate board diversity a factor in whether to give corporations tax incentives for economic development. In deciding whether to approve tax incentives to a company, the MEI Project Approval Commission…
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Public Health Covid Rules Were Nothing But Voodoo
by Kerry Dougherty We tried to tell you. Those of us with common sense were attacked for it though. Back in 2020, when we were being accused of wanting to kill grandma because we knew the “rules” coming from our public health officials were — for lack of a better term — unconstitutional bullshit, we…
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Teacher Vacancies in Virginia Cities with a Majority of Black Students Continue to be Very High
by James C. Sherlock The statewide performance of Black kids on Virginia’s SOLs was horrible. Chronic absenteeism is a primary reason. But I continue to look for underlying reasons and solutions for both. This morning I checked the Staffing and Vacancy Dashboard. The teacher vacancy rate for Region 2, Tidewater and the Eastern Shore, is…
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The “Chanukah Dilemma”: Is the Menorah a Religious or Political Symbol?
by Ken Reid Thursday night is the final night of Chanukah, the eight-day Festival of Lights that I (and millions of Jews across the world) celebrate, to mark the miracle that occurred when the 2nd temple was restored following a rebellion by religious Jews against secular Hellenistic Jews and their Greek-Syrian allies in the 160’s…
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The Asymmetrical Application of Free-Speech Principles
by James A. Bacon Clifford S. Asness, founder of AQR Capital Management, did a masterful job of distilling the free-speech debate on college campuses to its essence. Though he had in mind the disastrous testimony of the three Ivy League presidents last week regarding Palestinians and Jews, his Wall Street Journal op-ed describes the dilemma…
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Kalven Principles for UVa?
by James A. Bacon Five years ago, University of Virginia President Jim Ryan took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter to comment upon the horrific murder of 11 Jews in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by a white nationalist. “This kind of hate and violence goes against everything this country…
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Proposed Reproductive Freedom Amendment Could Eliminate Limits
by Emilio Jaksetic House Joint Resolution 1 (HJ 1) and Senate Joint Resolution 1 (SJ 1) have been prefiled for consideration of the Virginia General Assembly to propose an amendment to the Virginia Constitution captioned “Article I, Bill of Rights, Section 11-A. Fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” A copy of HJ 1 is available at here…
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Insufferable and Dangerous Nonsense in Academia – Antisemitism Sector
by James C. Sherlock I read this morning in the latest issue of Chronicle of Higher Education a particularly smarmy article by a Keith E. Whittington. He is, among other things, “professor of politics at Princeton University and founding chair of the Academic Committee of the Academic Freedom Alliance”. Good to know. He addressed in…
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Daughter of Heroines
by Margot Heffernan The year is 2023 but it feels as if the calendar has rolled back a hundred years for women and girls in Virginia, and just about anywhere else in the Western world. Hyperbolic? Over the top? Sadly, no. Each day women are censored, denigrated, and erased; called bigots for speaking biological fact;…
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Williamsburg Street Festival Engages in Ugly Antisemitism
by Kerry Dougherty A monthly street fair in Williamsburg is making national headlines for all the wrong reasons: over the weekend news broke that the organizers banned a rabbi from a menorah-lighting ceremony. Unless the rabbi would light the candles under a banner demanding a ceasefire in Israel, that is. Which raises the question, what…
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Charlottesville, Its Public Schools and UVa – Part Three – CCS Abandons Truancy Filings, Absenteeism Soars
by James C. Sherlock The effects of public policies can be murky. Not this one. The subject in this Part 3 is alarming chronic absenteeism of Charlottesville City Schools (CCS). At issue is the virtual abandonment by that division of the use truancy filings with the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, removing parental consequences. …