Local Law Blogs

Watch what you ask for

Posted on July 01, 2010
In MCI Constructors v. City of Greensboro, the Fourth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Duncan joined by Chief Judge Traxler and Judge Davis affirmed an arbitration award in favor of the City and against the contractor for over $14 million, arising under a $29 million contract for the construction of a wastewater treatment facility...

On Kagan and McChrystal

Posted on June 28, 2010
This morning I saw this article which says among other things: "The solution to a less politicized military can be accomplished via dilution, but for this to happen more political centrists and liberals would have to join the military. I doubt this will happen...

On Kagan and Byrd

Posted on June 28, 2010
One of the raps on the Supreme Court nominee being considered this week, Elena Kagan, is that she has never been a judge, never tried a case, and never argued an appeal until just recently.Off the top of my head, the last couple of Supreme Court justices who were not judges before they went on the Supreme Court were William Rehnquist and Virginia's own Lewis Powell, who were appointed by Nixon...

Chief Justice Hassell on the state of the judiciary in Virginia

Posted on June 22, 2010
Here are the remarks of the Chief Justice to the assembled judges of the Commonwealth last month in Norfolk.He discussed the problem of the various programs and funding challenges, and then a bit about himself, since it will be his last judicial conference as the chief judge:"I was born in Norfolk, at Norfolk Community Hospital, which is about 20 minutes from this hotel, adjacent to the campus of Norfolk State University...

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The Goodlatte Building?

Posted on June 22, 2010
Rep. Goodlatte opposes the renovation of the federal building in Roanoke, named for former Congressman and Supreme Court Justice Richard Poff, preferring instead the construction of a new building.

You knew that was coming one of these days

Posted on June 18, 2010
It says here that some Southwest Virginia landowners have filed suits in Abingdon federal court seeking to have class actions certified against Equitable and CNX for cheating landowners out of billions of dollars in connection with the production of coalbed methane...

Former Justice Souter's graduation speech at Harvard

Posted on June 01, 2010
In this speech, former U.S. Supreme Court justice David Souter tries to debunk criticisms of liberal judicial activitism, the gist of which is that not all Constitutional questions are as simple as the minimum age of U.S. Senators.

Eat a good breakfast (or not)

Posted on April 02, 2010
This story about the Duke law student who fainted during oral argument in the Fourth Circuit reminds me of court appearances when I wished I had eaten less for breakfast.

The sheriff said it

Posted on March 30, 2010
This story from the Galax paper describes how the Sheriff of Grayson County tackled a fleeing suspect in a field of Christmas trees.The article concludes: "Sheriff Vaughan stated that Proverbs 28:1 is correct in that 'only the wicked flee when no man pursueth...

What is the interstate commerce nexus of the health care reform bill?

Posted on March 24, 2010
The lawsuit filed by Virginia's Attorney General challenges the authority of Congress acting under the Interstate Commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution to require the purchase of health insurance. The Complaint cites a report by the Congressional Research Service, which analyzes the constitutionality of such a requirement...

Is it illegal to refuse to answer the census questions?

Posted on March 22, 2010
Section 221 of the Title 13 of the United States Code says this:(a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100...

Congratulations

Posted on March 02, 2010
The United States Senate approved the nomination of Justice Keenan of the Virginia Supreme Court to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and so the former Justice might not ever again be required to sit before a gang of legislators and have to defend her jurisprudence...

On the W.D. Va. judgeships

Posted on February 25, 2010
VLW reports that Judge Norman Moon of the W.D. Va. is taking senior status, which means that President Obama will have an opportunity to nominate a candidate to replace him, subject to the advice and consent of the United States Senate.A little while ago, I was added to the Virginia Bar Association Committee on Federal Judgeships for the Western District, and so it appears this committee headed by my old friend Howard McElroy will have reason to meet in the near future.

Hey, what about 276?

Posted on February 15, 2010
"We wanted to recruit the state and make sure that the players in all areas that we have an opportunity to present ourselves, what we have to offer," London said. "Whether it's 757, 804, 703, 434, whatever area code it is, we're going to try to do the best in those areas...

Senator Puckett on Fox News

Posted on February 02, 2010
Just saw Senator Puckett on with Greta Van Susteren, explaining the vote in the Virginia Senate to reject one element of the health care reform being debated in the U.S. Congress. What good it does for the General Assembly to vote on such things was not really discussed.

More on Judge Glen Williams

Posted on February 02, 2010
This is more or less the text of a speech I gave to a gathering of a few hundred friends of Judge Williams in 2002, and the judge liked it at the time, and now he cannot hold me in contempt of court for republishing it:I was going to speak as a former law clerk at a ceremony for Judge Williams some years ago, but I couldn?t make it, so Randy Lowe spoke instead...

On Judge Williams

Posted on February 01, 2010
The word is out that Judge Glen M. Williams is retiring altogether from his position as senior judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Judge Williams was appointed in 1976. A few of the posts I have written about Judge Williams are collected here...

Who's up for re-election this year?

Posted on January 21, 2010
One never knows what's going on, but I know that Judge Tate from the 28th District is up for reappointment, as are I think Judges Moore and Vanover from the 29th Circuit. Who else?As is the custom here, I invite those three to tell anybody I'm for them or against them, whichever bests suits their purposes.

One of those gratuitous offensive things that governors are allowed to do on their way out the door

Posted on January 18, 2010
Governor Kaine started the process for Jens Soering to be transferred to Germany and released from prison, as reported here, which seems like a lucky break for Soering on top of the fact that but for his status as a German national he would have likely received the death penalty years ago.

What would Judge Williams say about this

Posted on January 14, 2010
The latest gas article by Daniel Gilbert says that the General Assembly might not act to rationalize the gas royalty escrow problem because of the pending lawsuit filed by Shea Cook, which makes me think of the similar argument made against the Guarantee Clause litigation before Judge Williams, where the Funds argued that the litigation would stop Congress from fixing the problem...

On the late George Warren

Posted on January 12, 2010
George Warren died yesterday, as the Bristol paper reports here. When I was a young lawyer, I took court-appointed criminal cases because that was the thing to do, and the prosecutor here was George Warren. And, whenever I got some cases, I would go see Mr...

The more Virginia governors you know, the more you like the single term limit?

Posted on January 04, 2010
So says Larry Sabato, more or less, in Va.'s McDonnell seeks end to term limit - Washington Times:"The more Virginia governors I've known, the more grateful I've been for the one-term limit. I say that tongue-in-cheek; I like many of them. The arrogance of power is something that citizens need to consider," Mr...

Judge Conrad's latest dismissal of the Equity in Athletics case

Posted on December 30, 2009
Here is the opinion in EIA v. Department of Education, wherein Judge Conrad of the W.D. Va. dismissed the latest incarnation of the lawsuit challenging the federal government's interpretation of Title IX of the Education Amendments as applied to the athletic programs of the Virginia's public colleges and universities...

More on gas in Virginia

Posted on December 11, 2009
Here are more parts of the Daniel Gilbert series on natural gas in Southwest Virginia, which I recommend no matter which side of things you're on.Part Three explains the Harrison-Wyatt decision, about the ownership of coalbed methane under particular deed language...

On firefighters getting promoted at the courthouse not the firehouse

Posted on December 09, 2009
In Wesley v. Arlington County, the Fourth Circuit in a 2-1 unpublished decision reversed summary judgment for the County, in a case where the plaintiff alleged that she was denied promotion on account of her race and gender. Judge Wilkinson dissented, pointing out that the other candidates were more experienced and the plaintiff had some performance issues, and concluded: "This case is, however, regrettably weak...

On putting the genie back in the bottle

Posted on December 09, 2009
The Supreme Court held in Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter written by new Justice Sotomayor that if the trial court makes you fork over discovery that you think is covered by the attorney-client privilege, you cannot take an immediate appeal under the collateral order exception to the requirement that only "final" orders are appealable...

The gas royalty series in the Bristol paper

Posted on December 07, 2009
Here are parts one and two of what is said to be an eight-part series by Daniel Gilbert detailing some inequities in the Virginia law pertaining to royalties for natural gas and coalbed methane.The escrow statute for recovering escroyed royalties for coalbed methane is Va...

Pseudo-legality

Posted on December 02, 2009
From the Court's opinion in U.S. v. Phillips:"Phillips filed this § 2255 motion on or about December 22, 2008, alleging that his conviction is illegal based on various and frivolous and pseudo-legal arguments. The 44-page motion argues, among other things, that key provisions of Titles 18 and 21 of the United States Code were not properly enacted and published and, as such, are not valid criminal statutes; that the government is not a legal 'person' for purposes of the Civil Rights Act and so his plea agreement cannot be a valid contract between two persons; that he is not guilty of a federal criminal offense because his criminal conduct occurred in the Commonwealth of Virginia, not on federal territory; that the United States Code has been copyrighted as the private international law applicable only in the District of Columbia; and that counsel was ineffective for failing to raise these arguments before advising him to plead guilty...

Mistaken identity arrestee's Fourth Amendment claims fall to qualified immunity

Posted on December 02, 2009
As a longtime student of the law of the statute of limitations and the law of qualified immunity, I enjoyed reading Magistrate Judge Sargent's opinions in Durham v. Elkins as to the deputy and the Commonwealth's Attorney. I'm not sure that I agree with everything in these opinions, but all's well that ends well.

Those proposed Local Rules for the W.D. Va.

Posted on November 11, 2009
Here you can see the proposed local rules for the Western District of Virginia.Gen. R. 2(b) is good - civil cases should be filed in the right jury division. Long live the Big Stone Gap courthouse!Gen. R. 11 about juror contact is sound, and Judge Jones has included something on those lines in his pre-trial order for some time...

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