CRIMINAL JUSTICE + POLICING
Va. Republicans try to restrict minors’ access to two books after judge’s obscenity finding
A Republican lawyer who serves in the Virginia House of Delegates is pursing restraining orders that would make two books unavailable to minors after a retired judge acting on behalf of the Virginia Beach Circuit Court found the books could be considered obscene due to explicit sexual content. In an interview Thursday, Del. Tim Anderson, […]
Virginia senator involved in skill-game suit invokes special session to delay hearing
Virginia Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, invoked his duties as a sitting lawmaker to request a delay in a high-profile lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on slots-like skill games, a move that appears to have bought his client valuable time to continue operating machines the General Assembly has tried to outlaw. Though a judicial order granting […]
Virginia LG joins amicus brief urging end to race-conscious college admissions
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the first woman of color elected to statewide office in Virginia, has signed onto an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to restrict the use of racial preferences in college admissions by siding with the Asian-American plaintiffs in a pending affirmative action case. Earle-Sears signed the anti-affirmative action brief along […]
State Supreme Court vacancies remain unfilled during political standoff
Two vacant seats in the Virginia Supreme Court hang in the balance in the political standoff in the Virginia Assembly. State lawmakers said in interviews this week that their negotiations over the justices continue but indicated they are no closer to resolution. “We do not have an agreement on how to proceed with the Senate,” […]
Judge: Goldman effort to link abortion to Va. election case is ‘patently inappropriate’
A federal judge strongly rejected Virginia attorney Paul Goldman’s effort to introduce a draft abortion ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court into his ongoing lawsuit over Virginia’s election calendar, calling Goldman’s motion “patently inappropriate and completely irrelevant.” This week, Goldman sought to introduce the leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion potentially overturning Roe v. Wade to […]
U.S. Senate to try again on abortion rights after bombshell disclosure of draft opinion
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday pledged a new vote codifying the right to an abortion after publication of a draft court ruling that indicates the Supreme Court is on track to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision. Democrats, who likely won’t have the votes to advance that bill, also predicted that […]
Youngkin and Miyares’ appeal of mask ruling is a harsh publicity stunt
Who will benefit from the appeal of a federal court ruling – sought by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares and other administration officials – that would challenge whether 12 students with serious health problems can legally ask classmates and teachers to continue to wear masks? Certainly not the overwhelmingly majority of public school […]
Va. Supreme Court shields records on suspension of judge at center of Parole Board controversy
In a 4-2 opinion, the Supreme Court of Virginia refused to unseal judicial disciplinary records detailing why a Virginia Beach judge was suspended from the bench amid controversy over her past tenure as chair of the Virginia Parole Board. Judge Adrianne Bennett, who joined the Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court after stepping […]
Why Virginia officials ruled the Parole Board leaks don’t count as whistleblowing
A former state investigator accused of leaking confidential information about the Virginia Parole Board acknowledged she was “ultimately responsible” for the material making its way to the news media last year, according to an employment-dispute ruling that upheld the investigator’s firing despite her efforts to seek whistleblower protection. After she was fired in March of […]
Lawsuit challenges Virginia right to retrieve law for hunting dogs
Three Virginians and a company run by one are suing Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources over the state’s controversial right to retrieve law, which allows hunters to go onto private property to retrieve hunting dogs. All of the plaintiffs have “been subject to repeated invasions by hunters and their dogs acting under color of lawful […]
After fight with Democrats, Youngkin announces new Parole Board picks
After Democrats blocked his first batch of nominees last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin is making four new appointments to the Virginia Parole Board. Several of the nominees announced Wednesday have ties to law enforcement, an apparent nod to the 2020 controversy over the previous Parole Board’s decision to release a man convicted in 1979 for […]
Virginia police routinely use secret GPS pings to track people’s cell phones
Scott Durvin says he faced aggressive questioning from a Chesterfield County Police detective after his friend died of a drug overdose at the end of 2019. What he didn’t know at the time was that police had also begun secretly tracking his whereabouts by ordering Verizon Wireless to regularly ping his phone’s GPS and report […]