Category: Courts and law
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VMI Disguises DEI Contract
By Jake Spivey In late fall 2021, Virginia Military Instituteโs Board of Visitors and its newly installed superintendent were still reeling from the state investigatorโs specious report condemning the Instituteโs cultural climate. Resolving to quiet a mostly nameless and unidentifiable assortment of individuals criticizing VMI, the Board submitted through the stateโs contracting website a request…
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Assault and Battery in Schools – Virginia Law and School Division Policies Make โMarks” 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 sheriffโs 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? Itโs 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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โRepressive Toleranceโ 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…
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Buta Biberaj and the Political Weaponization of the Loudoun Commonwealthโs Attorney Office – Against Other Democrats and the Press
by James C. Sherlock Loudoun County Commonwealthโs Attorney Buta Biberaj (D) has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the tool that opens up government to citizens, in an attempt to destroy political opponents and intimidate the press. Ms. Biberaj has admitted to investigating her political rivals using FOIA requests to view correspondences between county…
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Why Shouldnโt Virginiaโs Felons Have To Ask Their Voting Rights Restored?
by Kerry Dougherty Lemme make sure I understand this: Virginiaโs ACLU, that left-wing organization that sat on its derriere during Gov. Ralph Northamโs unconstitutional closure of churches and businesses, is suddenly active again. Its lawyers want Virginiaโs convicted felons to automatically get their voting rights back, even if they havenโt made restitution to their victims…
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Arlington CPS Seizes Baby Girl Over Tylenol
by Asra Q. Nomani and Debra Tisler Late Wednesday afternoon, in Courtroom 4B of Arlington Countyโs Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Sean Jackson beamed widely as a judge granted him and his parents, Carlos Makle and Kim Jackson-Makle, joint custody of Seanโs baby girl, Amoria, instead of relegating her to foster care or instability with…
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RVA 5×5: Heard the Noise, Seen The Light
by Jon Baliles Well, it seems Mayor Levar Stoney has finally picked up on a problem on Richmondโs streets that many of us have known about for three-plus years. If you live downtown, or in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Randolph, Scottโs Addition, Byrd Park, Malvern Gardens, parts of Northside, Monroe…
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Meet Abrar Omeish, Exhibit A in the Woke Army
๏ปฟ by Asra Q. Nomani Exclusive: In 2019, Abrar Omeish canvassed for support at a fundraiser for the anti-Semitic group American Muslims for Palestine and said she wanted to change the โnarrativeโ on Palestinians. She was elected to office and launched a tirade against the state of Israel, which she smeared as an โapartheidโ nation,…
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Virginia Democrats Want to Deal With Criminals 18-20 in the Juvenile Justice System
by James C. Sherlock I received an update yesterday from the NAACP on legislation that caught their interest in the 2023 General Assembly. One bill that did not pass, but got party line Democratic support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, in turn caught my eye. It was SB 1080 Juvenile and domestic relations district courts;…
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Putting Victims First. For A Change.
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that you are the victim of a violent crime. The perpetrator has been arrested and you thought he was about to go on trial when you learn that your local prosecutor โ one of those squishy soft-on-crime types who was bankrolled by George Soros โ already entered into…
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Unconstitutional Viewpoint Discrimination in Virginia K-12 Teacher Evaluation Standards
by James C. Sherlock Progressives, in the fullness of their dogma, oppose the entire Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is specifically structured to limit the powers of government, which progressives find not only unsuitable, but unimaginable. In the Golden Age of Progressivism in Virginia, 2020 and 2021, they controlled the governor’s mansion, the…