Category: Courts and law
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Certificate of Public Need’s Hall of Mirrors
by James C. Sherlock In Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, everything is reflected hundreds of times. The mirrors were also a commercial. They represented an effort of Louis XIV to establish for France monopolies on the production of luxury goods. Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law and regulations represent a similar structure. Everything in the…
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Sentara and the Judge
by James C. Sherlock Updated Feb. 23 at 2:15 pm In an ongoing series of reports, Ray Locker, enterprise and investigative editor of the Checks and Balances Project, has exposed a story with far-reaching implications. Norfolk Circuit Court Chief Judge Mary Jane Hall sat in judgment on a case, Chesapeake Hosp. Auth. v. State Health Comm’r, in…
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Hey, ACLU: Forget the Fence, Go After Curfews and Booze Restrictions
by Kerry Dougherty Some of us have been waiting 11 months for Virginia’s legal eagles – especially the ACLU – to bombard the courts with a blizzard of challenges to Gov. Ralph Northam’s excessive executive orders that have stomped on the constitutional rights of millions of Virginians. Instead we mostly got crickets. For a time,…
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Fix Was In for VMI Contract, Lawsuit Alleges
by James A. Bacon In awarding a contract to investigate racism at the Virginia Military Institute, the Northam administration stacked the deck in favor of preferred vendor, Barnes & Thornburg, and stymied efforts by a competing bidder, the Center for Applied Innovation (CAI), to contest the award, alleges a suit filed by CAI in Richmond…
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Shredding Virginia Employment Law One Bad Bill at a Time
by Liam Bissainthe The Virginia state senate has blocked a bill that could potentially change the definition of “sexual harassment.” It would hold even small employers liable for comments defined as either “workplace harassment” or “sexual harassment.” Employers would held liable even for conduct that occurs “outside of the workplace,” and even for conduct committed…
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The Mythology of Robert E. Lee
By Peter Galuszka With excellent timing, the former head of the history department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has come out with a book about the mythology of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and much of the White “Southern” culture. Retired U.S. Army Gen. Ty Seidule, a former paratrooper, has deep Virginia…
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Fixing the Outcome by Fixing the Rules?
by James A. Bacon What are the rules of the game in the state’s investigation of racism at the Virginia Military Institute? That question is now front and center, as has been revealed in an interim report released by Barnes & Thornburg, the law firm selected to pursue the investigation. Investigators have been sparring over…
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Virginia’s Legendary Corruption Blocks Antitrust Enforcement
by James C. Sherlock Readers of this blog have indicated an unquenchable appetite for information about and discussion of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law and its administration. This essay informs on the negative impacts of the COPN law and the Virginia Antitrust Act (the Act) itself on the enforcement of antitrust laws against Virginia’s…
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Dysfunction Exposed in COVID Demands Overhaul of Virginia’s Government
by James C. Sherlock We all like to discuss the politics of things. That in many instances is appropriate. But political leadership is neither the problem nor the solution I will discuss here today. We will spend every day between now and November’s election debating how the politicians responded to COVID. And we should. But…
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A Horse Built by a Committee
by James C. Sherlock Updated Jan 31 at 8:46 AM Virginia’s Attorney General has offered a bill to create a new state bureaucracy to handle the opioid settlement money about to flow into the Commonwealth to support prevention, treatment, and recovery. It is going to be a lot of money. The state opioid settlements will…
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Criminal Law and Public Safety Bills of Interest
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Despite recently having a special session to devote to criminal justice reform, the General Assembly has a healthy docket of criminal law and public safety reform bills to consider this session. I have selected a few to highlight below. Unless otherwise noted, the bills are still in their original committees. Democratic Priorities…
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The Cost of Criminal Justice Reform
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Examining the projected costs of criminal justice reform enacted by the 2020 Special Session may be a bit of old news, but I think it is still useful. The General Assembly has appropriated $27.2 million for the current biennium to support its criminal justice reform initiatives. If one includes the additional $800,000…
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GE Sues Siemens Over Dominion Data Leak
by Steve Haner General Electric (GE) has filed suit seeking major monetary damages from Siemens Energy in a Virginia federal court, alleging “willful and malicious misappropriation of GE trade secrets” as they competed to be suppliers to Dominion Energy Virginia. Dominion is not a named defendant, but an employee (reportedly now gone) is accused of…
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Confusing “Workplace Harassment” Bill is Back
by Hans Bader “Old bills never die, they just wait for votes,” notes the East Bay Times. A bad bill can die in one legislative session, only to come back with a vengeance in the next session, and get passed due to more intense lobbying, or the death or retirement of opposing lawmakers. That may…
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A Last-Ditch Effort to Improve Regulatory Balance
By Steve Haner In a matter of weeks, Dominion Energy Virginia is expected to initiate the long-awaited review of its revenues, expenses, and profits in front of the State Corporation Commission, the first since 2015. A series of bills in recent years has set rules for that process which constrain the SCC’s discretion and fix…