Category: Courts and law
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Scandal in Plain Sight – Virginia’s Failed Regulation of Law-Avoiding Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock One of the most important and heart-wrenching decisions families make for their elderly loved ones is whether they are able to keep them in their homes as they get older and sicker. Sometimes that is not feasible for a long list of reasons in each case. More than 30,000 Virginians live…
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Judge Orders LCPS to Turn Over Investigation into the Assaults and Rape at Two County Schools
by Jeanine Martin Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James P. Fischer has ordered Loudoun County Public Schools to turn over its internal investigation into the assaults and rape that occurred in 2021 at two Loudoun County high schools. The school system had argued that it was privileged information that they need not share with the…
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Appeals Court Upholds TJHSST Admissions Policy
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all the ink that has been used on this blog concerning the “illegal” and “unconstitutional” new admissions policy at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, here is a story that has strangely escaped comment here: the federal appeals court has upheld the policy. In a 2-1 decision, the…
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Virginia Judge Defends Handgun Purchases For 18-20 Year-Olds In New Ruling
by The Republican Standard staff In a groundbreaking decision, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a ban on handgun sales to individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 is unconstitutional, citing last year’s Supreme Court Bruen decision. Fox News reports: In a 71-page ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne…
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Opponents of Northern Virginia Prosecutors Pick Up Support
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The primary opponents of two of Northern Virginia’s “progressive” incumbent commonwealth’s attorneys picked up a key endorsement a few days ago. I would have thought that contributors and commenters on this blog who have been vocal critics of those incumbents would have been rejoicing and highlighting those endorsements. Perhaps it is the…
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Let The People In
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia Supreme Court has again ruled against a local government for violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The case arose as a result of Deborah Wahlstrom deciding to attend a day-long retreat of the Suffolk City School Board focused on board training and strategic planning. The meeting was publicly advertised…
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Virginia Democrats in the House of Representatives Vote Against Their Own Daughters
by James C. Sherlock Every Virginia Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a bill to amend Title IX to prohibit biological boys and men from competing against biological girls and women in K-12 and college sports. Voting nay: Donald Beyer, Gerald Connolly, Jennifer McClellan, Bobby Scott, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton.…
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Fourth Circuit Gives Standing to Parents Suing Loudoun County Schools over First Amendment Violations
by James C. Sherlock In a win for freedom of speech, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond overturned a finding by a federal district judge that Loudoun parents did not have standing to sue the School Board for infringement of First Amendment rights. The parents alleged a bias reporting…
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VMI Disguises DEI Contract
By Jake Spivey In late fall 2021, Virginia Military Institute’s Board of Visitors and its newly installed superintendent were still reeling from the state investigator’s specious report condemning the Institute’s cultural climate. Resolving to quiet a mostly nameless and unidentifiable assortment of individuals criticizing VMI, the Board submitted through the state’s contracting website a request…
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Assault and Battery in Schools – Virginia Law and School Division Policies Make “Marks” of Principals
by James C. Sherlock This is addressed directly to Virginia public school principals. You are compliant with current Virginia law whether you report assault and battery to police or do not. Bad law makes for bad policy. Depending upon your school division, your requirements may vary. A lot. In gambling, and this issue is a…
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Incarceration Should Not Mean Humiliation
by Kerry Dougherty Hang onto your wallets, Portsmouth. A lawsuit filed Friday in Circuit Court is seeking $1 million in damages due to alleged misconduct by a sheriff’s deputy. Oh, and another $350,000 in punitive damages. The conduct – if it happened – was atrocious. According to court papers filed by a former inmate, Danaesha…
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Changes to the Virginia Law Requiring Schools to Report Incidents to the Police Makes them Far More Dangerous
I wrote originally about the 2020 changes to the school incidents reporting law. I have removed the content of this column in order to reconcile issues with the current reporting law, including 2022 changes, with the Department of Education. I will repost it when those issues are resolved.
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Gun Owner Whose Son Shot His Teacher Will Get Her Day In Court
by Kerry Dougherty Four words came to mind when news broke yesterday that a Newport News grand jury had indicted the mother of a 6-year-old school shooter: what took so long? It’s been 13 weeks since a FIRST GRADER brought a handgun to school in his backpack and used it to shoot his teacher in…
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“Repressive Tolerance” and the Constitutions of the United States and of Virginia
by James C. Sherlock In the United States, the first references for judges and attorneys are the federal and state constitutions. The Constitution of the United States, in its First Amendment, requires that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,…
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All Rise for the Judge
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The Commonwealth is unique in the nation in how it selects its judges. States use a wide variety of methods to select judges. Furthermore, many states use different methods to select judges at different levels. The National Center for State Courts, located in Williamsburg, by the way, has created a nice report…