The VLW Blog

A group of Richmond music lovers charged with violation of the city’s new noise ordinance are willing to risk conviction to get a ruling on their claim that the law is unconstitutional.
“What happened in this case was inexcusable,” said Steven Benjamin, attorney for the defendants, who were charged after six police officers allegedly “raided” a [...]

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Privacy advocate B.J. Ostergren, who posted state officials’ Social Security numbers as a dramatic demonstration of security lapses on official websites, won an appellate victory Monday.
A 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed a district court ruling that a Virginia law barring Ostergren’s public postings violated the First Amendment. The 3-judge panel remanded the [...]

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It’s Christmas-in-July in Loudoun County where the supervisors again are planning to grab the third-rail issue of courthouse holiday displays.
Before the leaders vote on public displays at the courthouse, however, Chief Circuit Judge Thomas Horne wants to let local judges speak up on the issue. As reported by the Loudoun Times, Horne has written to [...]

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A First Amendment battle between the Rockingham County commonwealth’s attorney and the James Madison University student newspaper reportedly has been resolved with the paper agreeing to turn over 20 images to law enforcement officials and the state paying the paper’s lawyers.
Prosecutor Marsha Garst – with a contingent of police officers – served a search warrant [...]

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Ruling that communications to others urging the death of a civil rights lawyer could not be considered a “true threat,” a Roanoke federal judge has dismissed one of the convictions of neo-Nazi William A. White. Three other convictions of threats or intimidation were upheld by Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Turk.
White, a Roanoke landlord [...]

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Roanoke neo-Nazi Bill White has been convicted by a jury of four of seven federal charges of making threats, reports WDBJ .
Although various alleged victims testified they were in fear of their lives from White’s menacing messages, White’s lawyers argued his comments were protected by the First Amendment.  White was acquitted of similar charges in [...]

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William A. White should remain in jail pending trial, according to a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Roanoke publisher of a neo-Nazi Web site is accused of threatening people by e-mail and Web posts.  The Roanoke Times reports the appeals panel reversed U.S. District Judge James Turk, who approved bond in [...]

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A Buchanan County news reporter is trying to convince a jury that county school leaders improperly banned him from school property because they didn’t like his stories.
Earl Cole, publisher of The Voice, claims that the school board defamed him and violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, reports the Bristol Herald-Courier.
The Buchanan [...]

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An assertion that a Marine was killed in Iraq as punishment for the tolerance of the United States for homosexuality was repugnant, but it could not be the basis for a $5 million judgment, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today.
U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett in Baltimore had ruled that the First [...]

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A blogger arrested for posting a police officer’s address will get some help from the ACLU of Virginia.
The group says it will defend Elisha Strom, a Bedford County woman who is charged under a state law that makes it a felony to publish a police officer’s address “with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass.”
As [...]

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