A U.S. Supreme Court decision addressing the constitutionality of blood draws from drunken driving suspects may have a limited effect in Virginia – for the time being. In the April 17 decision, which split the justices 5-4, the high court ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal DUI U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – As they grilled the lawyers arguing before them on the issue of whether police can collect DNA samples from unconvicted arrestees without a warrant, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged just how high the stakes are. ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Criminal U.S. Supreme Court

Let me tell you the true story of Aaron Tobey and his journey through the Richmond airport. He acted out a fantasy that many of us harbor. Whether he is to be praised or dismissed as a troublemaker I leave ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Federal Courts

In a challenge by plaintiff advocacy groups, the Center for Individual Freedom and West Virginians for Life, to the district court’s decision interpreting West Virginia’s statutory scheme to regulate advocacy groups’ spending in political campaigns, the 4th Circuit upholds the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Henry F. Floyd

A resident of Cary, N.C., loses his constitutional challenge to a local sign ordinance, cited by the town to demand removal of a sign painted on the resident’s house saying “Screwed by the Town of Cary”; the 4th Circuit reverses ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Albert Diaz

Lawyer-blogger Horace Hunter faced the Supreme Court of Virginia Jan. 8 in the appeal of his disciplinary case, and he said anything he wrote about his clients’ cases is absolutely protected by the First Amendment. First Amendment scholar Rodney Smolla ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Justice Cleo E. Powell Justice Cynthia D. Kinser Justice William C. Mims Lawyer Discipline Rules of Professional Conduct Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia State Bar

The Supreme Court of Virginia acted swiftly last month 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 ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Defamation Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Thomas A. Fortkort Supreme Court of Virginia

In a newspaper’s appeal of a circuit court decision to remove original photographs and an autopsy report from the public record in a murder and felony child-neglect case, and to seal photocopies of certain exhibits retained in the court file, ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Walter S. Felton Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

An Arlington County sign ordinance that required a doggy daycare business to remove a 960-square foot painting of cartoon dogs on the side of the daycare’s business passes constitutional muster as a content-neutral restriction on speech that survives intermediate scrutiny, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Albert Diaz

A Facebook “like” for a boss’s political opponent is not protected speech under the First Amendment, a federal judge in Newport News said last month. One “click of a button” on a Facebook page does not warrant constitutional protection under ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Federal Courts Judge Raymond A. Jackson