Category: Courts and law
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Supremes Reject “Compactness” Argument against 2011 Redistricting
Using the courts to reform Virginia’s politicians-pick-their-voters redistricting procedures got harder than ever, thanks to last week’s ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court. One Virginia 2021, a nonpartisan redistricting reform group, had challenged the 2011 gerrymandering of five House of Delegates districts and six Senate districts on the grounds that they violated the state constitutional…
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Visual Impacts and Transmission Lines
Last week the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia rejected a last-ditch appeal by the National Parks Conservation Association and allied groups to block construction of the controversial high-voltage transmission line across the James River near Jamestown. Dominion Energy Virginia had embarked upon preliminary construction in February after winning a U.S. Army Corps…
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Does Miles November Deserve a $6.5 Million Settlement?
In 2015 Miles Zachery-Cole November led Chesterfield County police on a high-speed chase, flipped his car, and resisted arrest, prompting a policeman to shoot him with a Taser. The jolt of electricity ignited gasoline that had spilled onto his body from the wreck, consuming him in flames. He suffered burns on 86% of his body…
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Oh, Not Him. He’s A Lobbyist!
“Will Republicans Put a Health Insurance Industry Lobbyist on the Powerful Virginia State Corporation Commission?” screams the headline on the website which to me epitomizes the intellectual depth of that particular political party. It is responding of course to news that Richmond attorney and lobbyist David Clarke is now considered the most likely choice by…
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Are Virginia’s Civil Courts Stacked Against the Poor?
Only one in 500,000 civil cases handled in Virginia’s general district courts each year have lawyers representing both plaintiffs and defendants, according to a new study by the National Center for State Courts. And what does that mean? “When only one side has an attorney and the other side doesn’t, then the system becomes dysfunctional,…
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Fear and Loathing in the Era of Weaponized PC
I don’t know John Accordino especially well, but we’re more than casual acquaintances. He and I had lunch a couple of times to discuss a partnership between Bacon’s Rebellion and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, which he headed at the time. He struck me as friendly and collegial. He was assiduous…
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Business As Usual in the Old Dominion: Gridlock, Greed and Confusion
After LaHood report, more squabbling over Metro’s future. In the wake of recommendations by former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., are edging toward compromises that would reform the ailing mass transit system’s governance system and shore up its financing. LaHood’s proposal to shrink the Metro board from six seats to five is…
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Plugging “Mercy” into the Judicial System
Just when it looked like the country was so locked in partisan gridlock that no one could agree about anything, along came the Republican-dominated General Assembly, the Democratic governor, and the Virginia Supreme Court to put into place reforms that make it easier for people owing court fines to keep their drivers licenses and continue…
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Supremes Say General Assembly Can Order Electric Rate Freeze
In a six to one ruling, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the General Assembly does possess the right under the state constitution to put limits on the State Corporation Commission’s ability to regulate electric utilities. As a practical matter, that means that the multi-year freeze in base electric rates for Appalachian Power Company and…
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Demanding Truth from Those in Power
The national media rightfully calls out President Trump for making outrageous statements such as his infamous line that there were “some very fine people on both sides” of the deadly confrontation in Charlottesville Saturday. Really? I know that there were some “very fine” people among the peaceful counter-protesters in Charlottesville — one, a gentle and…
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About Those School-to-Prison Pipeline Numbers…
Two years ago the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) released a study reporting that Virginia led the nation in sending students from schools — 16 out of 1,000 — to police or the courts. That finding fueled demands to overhaul k-12 disciplinary practices to reduce the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline.” Well, it turns out that those…
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Virginia Needs a New Constitution, Part 2
by Donald J. Rippert The Commonwealth’s Cornucopia of Constitutions. Virginia has written, scrapped and rewritten its state constitution many times. Virginia is presently operating under its seventh constitution. While that seems striking compared to the U.S. Constitution, it’s not that unusual for a state constitution. Florida and Pennsylvania have had five constitutions, South Carolina six,…
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Jury Pool Reject
Yippee! I was struck from the Henrico County jury today, and I’m back to blogging. I was fully prepared to participate in the three-day jury trial of a man charged with heroin distribution, but someone — I’m betting it was the defense attorney — gave me the heave-ho. I don’t know the reason, but I’m…
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Virginia Needs a New Constitution, Part 1
by Donald J. Rippert Carved in stone. America’s elite and their lap dogs within our political structure know that larceny is best accomplished within a vacuum of change. If the “little people” in a democracy ever figure out that they can force the politicians to change the laws then the elite find crony capitalism far…
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Protecting Virginia’s Forgotten Constitutional Right
By Elwood Earl “Sandy” Sanders, Jr. The Constitutional rights of Virginians are in danger every day. No, not the usual suspects like freedom of speech and the right to bear arms, but rather the Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel. The Commonwealth has a crazy quilt of counties and cities. Many jurisdictions have a public defender office…