The VLW Blog

Not to be left behind by the Court of Appeals of Virginia, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has used a photograph to illustrate the subject of a North Carolina zoning dispute in a new opinion. While the Virginia court has offered images of weapons, the federal judges included a photo of a house [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia acted swiftly Friday to overturn a lower court’s takedown order directing a disgruntled consumer to remove critical online postings about a contractor. The high court vacated a Dec. 7 order from Fairfax Circuit Judge Thomas A. Fortkort ordering Jane Perez to delete certain accusations about Dietz Development LLC from postings [...]

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A former sheriff’s deputy who tried to get out of a speeding ticket by claiming he was still “on the job” was convicted of impersonating an officer. “Not fair,” he claimed, arguing the law against pretending to be a cop violates the First Amendment because it would criminalize actors in police uniforms and kids playing [...]

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Fighting a lawsuit over its use of Christian prayers in public meetings, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors is taking aim at the lawyer who brought the suit. The board has asked a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit filed by Barbara Hudson because – the board claims – Hudson is not sincere when [...]

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A dispute over public access to evidence in a criminal file must be resolved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, a Court of Appeals panel decided in a split decision. A newspaper reporter is challenging the decision of a Newport News judge to block access to certain evidence in a criminal case. Two members of [...]

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Roanoke hatemonger William A. White struck out twice at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, with the court upholding both his criminal convictions for sending threatening messages and a half-million-dollar civil judgment in favor of his victims. White even faces the possibility of more prison time. The appeals court held the trial [...]

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A Roanoke federal judge has ordered the Pittsylvania County supervisors to halt the routine use of Christian prayers to open their meetings. U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski held Friday that none of the arguments in favor of the county board’s prayer policy “has any merit.” Concluding that a citizen who challenged the prayers was [...]

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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says there are two ways local governments can meet the prevailing legal standard for prayer at government meetings. In an opinion letter arising from the dispute over Christian prayers at Pittsylvania County meetings, Cuccinelli said officials can either request nonsectarian prayers or cast a wide net for clergy so that [...]

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A Virginia State Bar discipline committee rejected First Amendment defenses and distinctions about public information to find misconduct on the part of a lawyer who blogged about his cases without client consent and without a disclaimer saying case results can be unreliable. The eight-member district committee ordered Horace Hunter of Richmond to yank from his [...]

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Resisting calls to bar an anti-Muslim speaker on campus at George Mason University’s law school, Dean Daniel Polsby scored points with free speech advocates with his published comments last week. His statement concluded thus: The law school will not exercise editorial control over the words of speakers invited by student organizations, nor will we take [...]

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