Category: Courts and law
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Mr. Saddam Salim’s Strange Acceptance of Political Endorsements
by Emilio Jaksetic In the upcoming November 2023 election, the Democratic Party candidate for Virginia Senate District 37 is Saddam Azlan Salim. Salim won the Democratic nomination by defeating Chap Peterson in the June 20, 2023 primary. A profile of Mr. Salim is available on Ballotpedia. A hypertext link in the Ballotpedia profile goes to…
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Where Do Dems Stand on Civil Immunity for Law Enforcement Officers?
by James C. Sherlock Being a law enforcement officer is tough under the best of circumstances. Do you think that exposure to losing your house and car in a civil suit for something you did in a split second to protect the public and yourself and did not have reason to know was against the…
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Where Does Freedom of Speech End?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I have a question. Under the recent Supreme Court case ruling that a wedding website designer could refuse to provide her services to a gay couple because to do so would require her to write something that she did not want to say, thereby violating her First Amendment right to free speech,…
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Equal Protection, Affirmative Action and Effecting Generational Change
by James C. Sherlock America is the most successful nation in the history of the world because of the freedoms and rights guaranteed by our Constitution. More than a hundred other nations have emulated the American Constitution. Without constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights, we would be chained to the whims of the state. Most immediately…
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Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part Two – State Action Required
by James C. Sherlock Patterns of understaffing, medical harm and abuse in nursing homes are traceable: in some cases to a business model of understaffing to increase profits. Federal fines are built into the business models of the bad actors. Some of the worst post double-digit annual operating margins; in some to other systemic chain-wide…
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Check Out Which New Virginia Laws Go Into Effect July 1st
by The Republican Standard staff The Virginia General Assembly passed several small bills due to the split between the Republican-led House of Delegates and the Democratic-controlled Virginia State Senate. Yet the areas where they did find co-operation could matter to many Virginians as we head into Fourth of July weekend. Enhanced Penalties for Fentanyl Manufacturing…
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Roanoke County Quietly Extends Contract For $109,000 Year Registrar But Questions Persist
by Scott Dreyer For many historical and cultural reasons, America has traditionally been what sociologists call a “high-trust” society. As reported in this report from the Pew Research Center, cultures with high trust (such as Canada and Sweden) usually have low crime and corruption while the reverse (such as South Africa and Peru) is also…
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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…