Category: Courts and law
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Northam Proposes Legal Marijuana in Va Within Two Years
by DJ Rippert Ralph Reefer. On Wednesday the Northam Administration unveiled legislation to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Virginia. The legislation will be introduced by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth. Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and Del. Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth. Northam took up the cause…
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Northam’s Good Move: End Executions
By Peter Galuszka Governor Ralph Northam will propose legislation to ban executions in the state. The move could end decades of systemic racism in the criminal justice system. “I’ve strongly about this for a long time,” he was quoted as saying. The bill will be taken up by the General Assembly, which met in its…
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Welcome to the Foxhole
by James C. Sherlock I just posted this response to a relative who asked me to read a post by a left wing professor blaming Q’Anon for the violence in the capitol. I read the article. I haven’t read enough of (name of the author) to characterize him, so I won’t. I will, however address…
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Mark Zuckerberg, Call Your Lawyer
by James C. Sherlock “You don’t need a Weatherman To know which way the wind blows.” — Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues. Consider this: “Facebook was hit with twin lawsuits by the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from dozens of states on Wednesday, in one of the most serious challenges ever to the Silicon Valley…
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Race vs. Class in Education Personal Data Collection – An Alternative
by James C. Sherlock Earlier I addressed the current method for collecting racial and ethnicity data for civil rights enforcement and found it lacking. So why do we do it that way? Because we have done it for a long time? The constitutional concerns can’t be wished away, and there are new proofs available in…
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Another Major Judicial System Reform
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Perhaps the most surprising item in the Governor’s recently-presented budget bill was the proposal to increase the size of the Virginia Court of Appeals by four judges, from 11 to 15. It is certainly one of the most controversial. The Republicans immediately decried the proposal as “court packing”. As usual, the issue…
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You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: Fairfax Courts Edition
by Hans Bader A judge in Virginia’s Fairfax County has ruled that portraits of white judges must be removed from a courtroom to protect a black criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial. The idea that white people are so scary or racially offensive that just seeing them deprives minorities of a fair trial would…
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A Threat to Due Process Comes from…(Drum Roll)… Virginia’s Division of Human Rights
by Emilio Jaksetic On November 18, 2020, Attorney General Mark R. Herring informed NAACP Loudoun Branch and Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) that a Final Determination (Determination) had been made by the Division of Human Rights (DHR) in DHR Case No. 19-2652. In making its Determination, DHR used a procedure that poses a serious threat…
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Amanda Chase: Chasing the Crazy Vote
by Kerry Dougherty At a time when many of us are railing against Gov. Ralph Northam’s arbitrary and capricious executive orders, a Republican who wants to replace him is calling on President Trump to declare martial law. Just what we need, another governor with tyrannical impulses. Not that State Sen. Amanda Chase has any chance…
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Legal Futility of Virginia’s Online Petitions
by Emilio Jaksetic Currently, online petitions are advocating the removal of the superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools and the principal of Thomas Jefferson High School. (See the petitions here and here.) Such online petitions are legally futile. Under Virginia law, removal of elected officials such as Fairfax County school board members is handled differently…
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Richmond’s Infamous Icon
By Peter Galuszka Since 1890, the Robert E. Lee Monument has dominated Richmond’s grand Monument Avenue and has stood as a striking protector of the state’s long history of systemic racism. True, other Confederate heroes such as Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart also found a memorial spot on the Avenue but Lee has always…
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Part III – Questions raised by Attorney General Herring’s Loudoun County Schools Determination
by James C. Sherlock The citizens of Loudoun and LCPS need to understand all the implications of the Attorney General’s determination. This essay will offer questions that I sincerely recommend that LCPS pose to the Attorney General in order to get enough information to decide what to do. The AG’s office was given 60 days…
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Herring’s Loudoun County Determination Part II – State-Sponsored Extortion
by James C. Sherlock Part one of two essays on this subject described a new Virginia law, a new Division in the Attorney Generals office, its function as a kangaroo court and its astonishing and sweeping “determination” against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). The law requires LCPS to block Asian American kids from the competitively…
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Belly Flops Make a Splash – Virginia Attacks on School Quality Gain National Attention
by James C. Sherlock The Wall Street Journal featured an op-ed today, the first four words of which were “Attorney General Mark Herring.” No picture of the AG, so I offer one here, but they spelled his name right. so perhaps it will be Senator Herring or President Herring one day soon. Unfortunately, the next…
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A Clear Victory for Civil Liberties
by James C. Sherlock In a speech to the Federalist Society earlier this month, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. said the pandemic “has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty. This is especially evident with respect to religious liberty. It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a…