Category: Courts and law
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A Horse Built by a Committee
by James C. Sherlock Updated Jan 31 at 8:46 AM Virginia’s Attorney General has offered a bill to create a new state bureaucracy to handle the opioid settlement money about to flow into the Commonwealth to support prevention, treatment, and recovery. It is going to be a lot of money. The state opioid settlements will…
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Criminal Law and Public Safety Bills of Interest
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Despite recently having a special session to devote to criminal justice reform, the General Assembly has a healthy docket of criminal law and public safety reform bills to consider this session. I have selected a few to highlight below. Unless otherwise noted, the bills are still in their original committees. Democratic Priorities…
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The Cost of Criminal Justice Reform
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Examining the projected costs of criminal justice reform enacted by the 2020 Special Session may be a bit of old news, but I think it is still useful. The General Assembly has appropriated $27.2 million for the current biennium to support its criminal justice reform initiatives. If one includes the additional $800,000…
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GE Sues Siemens Over Dominion Data Leak
by Steve Haner General Electric (GE) has filed suit seeking major monetary damages from Siemens Energy in a Virginia federal court, alleging “willful and malicious misappropriation of GE trade secrets” as they competed to be suppliers to Dominion Energy Virginia. Dominion is not a named defendant, but an employee (reportedly now gone) is accused of…
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Confusing “Workplace Harassment” Bill is Back
by Hans Bader “Old bills never die, they just wait for votes,” notes the East Bay Times. A bad bill can die in one legislative session, only to come back with a vengeance in the next session, and get passed due to more intense lobbying, or the death or retirement of opposing lawmakers. That may…
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A Last-Ditch Effort to Improve Regulatory Balance
By Steve Haner In a matter of weeks, Dominion Energy Virginia is expected to initiate the long-awaited review of its revenues, expenses, and profits in front of the State Corporation Commission, the first since 2015. A series of bills in recent years has set rules for that process which constrain the SCC’s discretion and fix…
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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…