Category: Courts and law
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The Supreme Court Case that Could Raise Your Internet Bill or Let Piracy Run Amok
by John Farmer Ponder this question: You run a business such as a company, university, coffee shop, or hospital that provides internet access to many people. Of course, some people use it to access pirated content, such as NFL games, movies, or songs. Are you at risk that your internet service provider (ISP) will cut…
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Crime and Punishment in Virginia Nursing Homes
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) inspectors regularly report instances of resident abuse, including battery, occasionally resulting in death. That has persisted for decades and appears undeterred by current enforcement efforts. The Code of Virginia (Code) is partially at fault. It makes it challenging for the state, its citizens, and local…
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Fairfax County’s Sanctuary Policy Is Costing Lives
by Stephanie Lundquist-AroraRepublished with permission from IWFeatures On Dec. 17, Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, 23, allegedly shot and killed a man in Reston, Virginia. Only the day before, Fairfax County officials ignored an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request and released him from jail. According to case documents from the Fairfax County General District Court, police…
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Fairfax Forfeits Transgender Case
Fairfax County Public School leaders capitulated after a student challenged their pro-transgender policies in court, offering hope that the era of so-called “transgender rights” is coming to a close. by Stephanie Lundquist-AroraRepublished with permission from IWFeatures Last month, Fairfax County Public Schools, represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, extended a Rule 68 Offer of Judgment to a former…
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Busted: GOP in Panic Mode Over Goldman Redistricting Strategy
by Paul Goldman Thank you sir: Mr. Emilio Jaksetic’s attempt to refute my article actually demonstrates the GOP is in a panic over my redistricting strategy. The GOP realizes I have indeed come up with a way to outfox Judge Thomas and his colleagues. Their rationale in the Texas case told Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, House Speaker Don…
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A Critique of Paul Goldman’s “Outfoxing Judge Thomas”
by Emilio Jaksetic On December 5, 2025, Paul Goldman’s “Outfoxing Judge Thomas: An Alternative Redistricting Strategy for VA Democrats” was posted on Bacon’s Rebellion. Mr. Goldman presented a strategy that he claimed could avoid potential legal barriers to efforts by Virginia Democrats to amend the Virginia Constitution to return the redistricting authority to the General…
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Outfoxing Judge Thomas
An alternative redistricting strategy for VA Democrats by Paul Goldman On Friday, I showed how the recent U.S. Supreme decision on the GOP Texas redistricting put a fork in the Spanberger/Scott/Surovell mid-decade redistricting plan. The High Court made certain that Virginia and other states got the message: once the campaign season is in full swing, fundamental…
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Did U.S. Supreme Court Kill Spanberger’s Redistricting Plan?
by Paul Goldman The legal experts who say yesterday’s decision on Texas redistricting allows Virginia to do mid-decade redistricting are wrong. I warned months ago the Supremes would okay Texas but not Virginia. Those experts who think otherwise need to read prior election law cases. There is a long history of the High Court rejecting…
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Chicanery & Circus at the Courthouse
by Jon Baliles There have been a lot of embarrassing moments in the history of city government, but one that will soon be in the Hall of Fame is taking place before our eyes, with the latest edition occurring last Tuesday in the John Marshall Courthouse. A trial that began more than 18 months ago…
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A Protege of Clarence Thomas at UVa. ?!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore After reading incessantly on this blog that the faculty of the University of Virginia is hopelessly progressive and woke and that students studying there will be indoctrinated in progressive ideas that are bad for the country, imagine my surprise upon learning that one of the leading originalist interpreters of the Constitution teaches…
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Another Virginia Trump Nominee Runs Afoul of Trump
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Poor Donald Trump. His appointments as U.S. Attorney in Virginia are proving to have too much independence and integrity. First there was Todd Gilbert in the Western District. Now, there is Erik Seibert in the Eastern District. Seibert’s office was overseeing the investigation of Letitia James, New York Attorney General, for mortgage fraud regarding…
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A Solution for Effective Nursing Home Oversight
Cutting the Gordian Knot by James C. Sherlock An overarching fact often overlooked is that the for-profit nursing home industry is the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Few for-profit facilities and chains existed before the passage of those programs in 1965. Yet it is for-profit systems that overwhelmingly commit abuses. Government oversight has proven…
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Richmond, Pay the Man His Money!
by Jon Baliles A strange story appeared this week almost out of nowhere and seems to have caught everyone by surprise, including the Mayor, who has spent the last few days fumbling the situation like a rookie running back. Graham Moomaw at The Richmonder broke the news Monday that Governor Youngkin sent the city a…
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Shell Game
by James C. Sherlock We note that the owners of Medical Facilities of America (MFA) have renamed their entire 51-facility chain “Lifeworks Rehab”. They can change it weekly if they wish. There are no rules on that front. We are left to presume it is happenstance that now none of the bad MFA headlines…
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“A Weak and Ineffective Republican”?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Todd Gilbert may be having mixed feelings today. The U.S. Senate has a custom whereby a member can veto a presidential nomination for a district court judgeship or U.S. Attorney in his or her state. It is called a “blue slip” and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee…