The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has removed its bar to Virginia’s planned execution of Danville murderer Christopher Emmett. The move sharpens the focus on the 4th Circuit, which is considering Emmett’s challenge to the method of ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals U.S. Supreme Court

We’re still waiting for the Virginia Lawyers Weekly interview with Antonin Scalia, but if you have been wondering why the notably media-wary justice has suddenly embraced electronic attention (other than book promotion, of course), there’s this bite from a new ...

Tagged with: U.S. Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court is one of the world’s most imposing government buildings. The facade is designed to impress, with 44 steps leading to the columned entrance. The Court’s own website describes the doors: “One can enter the building ...

Tagged with: U.S. Supreme Court

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the illegality of a search under Virginia law does not require the suppression of evidence seized during the search. Writing for the court in Virginia v. Moore, Justice Antonin Scalia said in ...

Tagged with: Criminal Supreme Court of Virginia U.S. Supreme Court

As reported on SCOTUSblog: In a widely splintered decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for death-row executions to resume across the country, concluding that the most common method of lethal injection does not violate the Constitution. The ...

Tagged with: Gov. Tim Kaine U.S. Supreme Court

Our DC-based colleague over at Lawyers USA, Kim Atkins, was down at the U.S. Supreme Court today, listening to argument in a case from Portsmouth, Virginia v. Moore. It’s a search case that has already been through the Supreme Court ...

Tagged with: Search & Seizure U.S. Supreme Court

A Department of Motor Vehicles record that a defendant was notified of his habitual offender status by law enforcement did not establish that he received actual notice of his determination as an habitual offender, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled ...

Tagged with: Criminal U.S. Supreme Court

Three death-penalty law experts met yesterday at the University of Richmond law school. Even with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule soon on whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, they agreed the debate over the death penalty ...

Tagged with: Law Schools U.S. Supreme Court Wrongful Death

Virginia Solicitor General William E. Thro unsuccessfully asserted the sovereignty of the commonwealth in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the appeal of a lesbian mother who is attempting to sever the parental rights of her former partner. In ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations U.S. Supreme Court Virginia Court of Appeals

Many lawyers in Virginia may never take an appeal to the Supreme Court of Virginia, let alone the U.S. Supreme Court. But law students at the University of Virginia, working in the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, will be able ...

Tagged with: Criminal U.S. Supreme Court