Category: Courts and law
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Kendi’s Brand of “Anti-Racism” is Unconstitutional
by Hans Bader The Fairfax County Public Schools paid $20,000 to an advocate of racial discrimination against whites, for a 45 minute speech on “anti-racism.” They also are paying bus drivers to drive empty school buses, even as schools operate online. Fairfax County has 1.1 million residents, and runs the largest school system in Virginia.…
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Herring Substitutes Emotion for Logic in Price-Gouging Case
by James A. Bacon Attorney General Mark R. Herring has joined 30 other state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in a federal appeals court to support the right of states to enforce price-gouging regulations against Amazon retailers. National and local emergencies, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, create shortages of essential items, says a…
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Reinforcing a Constitutional Right
By Dick Hall-Sizemore While there are several high-profile bills on police and criminal justice reforms making their way through the General Assembly, another, less-noticed bill, SB 5007 (Morrissey, D-Richmond), ending jury sentencing, has the potential to have as great an impact on the Commonwealth’s criminal justice system as any of the others. Currently, in Virginia,…
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Job Recovery Is Not the Special Session’s Focus
By Steve Haner With the Virginia General Assembly’s “Cops and COVID” special session moving into its third week, it seems likely to impede rather than assist the state’s economic recovery from the pandemic. It may also greatly expand COVID-19’s financial burdens in the years to come. The highly publicized issues of unpaid rents and utility…
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Murder and Marijuana in Northern Virginia
By DJ Rippert Risky business, reccless behavior. Federal prosecutors recently charged members of a Northern Virginia drug gang, the Reccless Tigers, with a variety of felonies. A US News & World Report article claims multiple members of the gang have been charged with “murder in a sweeping new indictment that blames the northern Virginia street…
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Maybe We Can Sue
by James C. Sherlock Updated August 30, 3:30 pm I wrote yesterday about a House of Delegates bill that ultimately was passed by the House Committee for Courts of Justice as House Bill No. 5074 Amendment In the Nature of A Substitute (the bill). I wrote of its effects on public officials and owners…
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McEachin Punts on Stoney Contract Inquiry
by James A. Bacon Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Collette McEachin said Friday she will not investigate Mayor Levar Stoney’s awarding of a $1.8 million contract to businessman Devon Henry, a Stoney campaign contributor, on the grounds that Henry also donated money in 2011 to her husband’s 2011 state Senate campaign. “Although the amount of money donated…
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What About Those Folks Facing Eviction, Governor?
By Dick Hall-Sizemore In his July 24 letter to the Chief Justice, the Governor requested the Supreme Court extend its moratorium on evictions. He concluded his request by saying, “This [the moratorium] will provide my administration the time to both work with the General Assembly to develop and pass a legislative package that will provide…
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The Tell Tale Heart: Racism in Richmond Medicine
By Peter Galuszka On Saturday, May 25, 1968, the Medical College of Virginia, now part of Virginia Commonwealth University, made medical history. A surgeon recruited from Stanford University a couple of years before successfully transplanted the heart from one middle-aged man to another. MCV officials in Richmond officials were ecstatic. Organ transplants were a hot,…
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The Hearings Are Over, Let the Battles Begin
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The House Committees on Courts of Justice and Public Safety held three meetings/public hearings in preparation for the General Assembly’s consideration of criminal justice and police reform in the upcoming special session. The sessions were billed as public hearings, but, in actuality, most of the time was spent in hearing from invited…
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COVID Workers Comp On House Democrat Bill List
By Steve Haner The coming Special Session of the General Assembly will be narrowly focused but filled with controversy, based on the legislative wish list just released by House of Delegates Democrats. Only two bills listed fall outside of the major categories of “COVID-19 Relief” or “Criminal Justice and Police Reform.” Under the heading “COVID…
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Law School Deans Ask for Mandated Anti-Racism Training
by Hans Bader As lawyers like Barack Obama have noted, law school is already a year too long, with lots of nonessential classes. As a result, law students often graduate with over $150,000 in student-loan debt. Yet law students may soon be required to take more unnecessary classes. One hundred and fifty law school deans…
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A Constitutional Approach to Avoiding Evictions in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock There has been extensive discussion here about minimizing residential evictions in Virginia in the time of COVID. I will offer a constitutional approach to achieving that objective. A Broad Consensus The Governor and General Assembly want to avoid evictions of residential tenants who are unable to pay rent due to COVID-related…
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Fool Me Once
By James C. Sherlock I want every tenant who cannot pay his rent because of COVID to be able to stay in his home. I want every landlord who supports them to be paid for their forbearance so they can pay their own bills. This post starts with both of those goals in mind. It…
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No Equal Justice for Landlords
The Virginia State Supreme Court extended yesterday the judicial moratorium on eviction proceedings for another 28 days. The split decision prompted a blistering rebuke from D. Arthur Kelsey, which L. Steven Emmert summarized yesterday in the post below, republished here from his blog, Virginia Appellate News & Analysis. — JAB Today the court responds to…