by Kerry Dougherty

In principle, legislation is usually preferable to executive orders. I’m talking at the state and federal level. They can’t be overturned with the flash of a pen by the next executive, for one thing.

This is why Congress needs to act quickly to enshrine President Trump’s executive orders in law.

But when legislators act, they can make things worse.

Case in point: The Virginia General Assembly, currently in Democrat control.

Last summer Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order telling schools that student cellphones must be banned during the school day. Exceptions were carved out for kids with disabilities that might require them to be able to use a phone for emergencies.

For reasons that are unclear, a number of school districts took their sweet time implementing Youngkin’s order, as if it required a great deal of work at the local level to tell the kids to leave their damned phones powered off and in their backpacks.

Next, the General Assembly decided to get in on the act and codify the rule. Democrats even lavished lukewarm praise on the governor, agreeing that cellphones were a distraction and don’t belong in the classroom. Neither do smartwatches.

Excellent! A rare flash of sanity from the far-left kooks in Richmond.

It was too good to be true, however.

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