Category: Courts and law
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Progressives in Virginia In Position to Overrule Parental Objections to Invasive Child Gender Dysphoria Treatment
by James C. Sherlock The Virginian-Pilot, in an editorial, bemoaned Governor Youngkin’s endorsement of a policy that would require schools to tell parents about their kids’ transexual identity expressions at school. It’s as though the potential consequences of such a policy have never crossed his mind. The sure consequences of opposing that policy were not…
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Pretrial Services Agencies: A Rejoinder
by Dick Hall-Sizemore My colleague, James Sherlock, recently posted an article in which he concluded that the Commonwealth’s pretrial agency program is a failure. I took issue with his basic conclusions, but did not have enough details handy to make my case. I now have more information. His conclusion was based on data shown in…
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Lee, Jackson, the Right of Rebellion, and Hanging Cromwell’s Corpse
by Jock Yellott As an August vacation from current events, let’s explore Virginia’s Right of Rebellion — and the question of Confederate treason. It’s in our state constitution Bill of Rights: “Whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to [the benefit, protection, and security of the people] a majority of the community hath…
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Zombie Legislation
by Jim McCarthy Zombies, having become popular in filmdom and TV, are finding resonance in the nation’s legislative sausage making. Generally, the term zombie legislation applies to statutes negated or consigned to death, often by federal or state court decisions, that remain on the books due to legislative lethargy. Currently, the phenomenon has become more…
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Welcome to America, Land Where Killers Roam Free
by James A. Bacon Adrian de Jesus Rivera Guzman, 48, and his stepson Juan Carlos Anaya Hernandez, 24, immigrants who had fled gang violence in Central America, were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were innocent bystanders doing landscaping work outside the Assembly Alexandria apartment complex when they were killed by gunfire.…
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Virginia Pre-Trial Release: the True Risks of Recidivism and Failure to Appear for Trial
by James C. Sherlock The goals, good ones, of Virginia’s Pre-trial Services Agencies (PSA) is to advise courts on pre-trial release risks; to supervise the population on pre-trial release to reduce recidivist crime and failures to appear (FTAs) and through both efforts to help assure public safety. By the government’s own evidence, those goals have…
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Triumphs in Criminal Bail Reform and Restorative Justice
by James C. Sherlock George Soros wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday July 31. Title: “Why I Support Reform Prosecutors.” Subtitle: “Justice or safety? It’s a false choice. They reinforce each other.” Mr. Soros proudly proclaims he has supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform.…
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Gender Dysphoria Treatment for Children Needs Some Rules in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Virginia needs, for the protection of children, parents, and physicians, a law to specify minimum age requirements and require court orders for voluntary medical intervention in child sexual development. When there are physical abnormalities involved, the court can order those treatments as well. On the other hand, I propose a ban…
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Seven Years for Shooting a Guy Eight Times. Sounds Like a Pretty Good Deal.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all those folks on this blog who are concerned about “woke” prosecutors, leniency toward murderers, and enforcement of gun laws, here is a case to consider. A 17-year-old Black kid goes to a house to purchase four ounces of marijuana for $400. While meeting with the 19-year-old seller, the kid pulls…
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The Far-Reaching Implications of the Federal Case of a UVa Medical Student
by James C. Sherlock This space has hosted commentary before on the case of KIERAN RAVI BHATTACHARYA, Plaintiff, v. JAMES B. MURRAY, et al., Defendants. Mr. Murray is sued in his role as University of Virginia Rector. This case relates to Bhattacharya’s suspension and dismissal from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in the…
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Impact of Supremes’ Roe v. Wade Ruling Way Overstated
by Ken Reid Should Governor Glenn Youngkin succeed in getting the Virginia General Assembly to curb abortion in Virginia from 25 weeks of pregnancy (at present) to 15, some 97% of abortions will still be protected, according to 2019 stats from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, in six of the eight…
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Virginia Law, Abortion, Expectant Mothers and Medical Professionals
by James C. Sherlock To clarify for those who misunderstand or knowingly misrepresent the statements of Republican leaders in the General Assembly concerning a new law on abortion, a woman aborting her unborn child is not proposed to be the subject of legal sanctions. The targets in the mainstream Republican proposals being developed for a new abortion…
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The Rest of the Story: Other TJ Amicus Briefs
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Asra Q. Nomani recently posted an article listing several organizations that had filed amicus curiae briefs in the case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in which the Fairfax County School Board is appealing a district court’s ruling that the new admissions process for the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and…
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Is Virginia’s Lab School Law Constitutional?
by James C. Sherlock The Governor and General Assembly may wish to look at Virginia’s new laboratory schools law in light of the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2022 Carson v. Makin (Carson) decision. Held: Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause. The facts of Carson, in which Maine spent…
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Picking the Wrong Fight
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the new Commonwealth’s attorneys in Northern Virginia has gotten into serious trouble. Circuit Court Judge James Plowman, in a highly unusual move, has removed the office of Loudoun County Commonwealth’s attorney Buta Biberaj from the prosecution of a case. In his order, Judge Plowman said that the prosecutor’s office had…