On the late Henry Hyde

Is it just me, or does the mention of the name of Henry Hyde, who died yesterday, make you think of this speech, which might be viewed as profound or ironic depending on your point of view, in which he said among other things:

"The rule of law is one of the great achievements of our civilization. For the alternative to the rule of law is the rule of raw power. We here today, are the heirs of three thousand years of history in which humanity slowly, and at great cost, evolved a form of politics in which law, not brute force, is the arbiter of our public destinies.

We are the heirs of the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic law: a moral code for a free people who, having been liberated from cruel bondage, saw in law a means to avoid falling back into the habits of slaves.

We are the heirs of Roman law: the first legal system by which peoples of different cultures, languages, races, and religions came to live together in a form of political community.

We are the heirs of Magna Carta, by which the freemen of England began to break the arbitrary and unchecked power of royal absolutism.

We are the heirs of a long tradition of parliamentary development, in which the rule of law gradually came to replace the royal prerogative as the means for governing a society of free men and women.

We are the heirs of 1776, and of an epic moment in human affairs when the Founders of this Republic pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor - sacred honor - to the defense of the rule of law.

We are the heirs of a hard-fought civil war, which vindicated the rule of law over the appetites of some for owning others.

We are the heirs of the 20th century's great struggles against totalitarianism, in which the rule of law was defended at immense cost against the worst tyrannies in human history. The "rule of law" is no pious phrase from a civics textbook. The rule of law is what stands between all of us and the arbitrary exercise of power by the state. The rule of law is the safeguard of our liberties. The rule of law is what allows us to live our freedom in ways that honor the freedom of others while strengthening the common good. The rule of law is like a three-legged stool: one leg is an honest judge, the second leg is an ethical bar, and the third is an enforceable oath. All three are indispensable to avoid political collapse.

In 1838, Abraham Lincoln celebrated the rule of law before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, and linked it to the perpetuation of American liberties and American political institutions:

'Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor; let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the character of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap - let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges - let it be written in primers, spelling books, and almanacs - let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.'

My colleagues we have been sent here to strengthen and defend the rule of law - not to weaken it, not to attenuate it, not to disfigure it while seeking an extra-legal and extra-constitutional solution to the threat posed to the Republic by a presidential perjurer.

This is not a question of perfection; it is a question of foundations.

This is not a matter of setting the bar too high; it is a matter of securing the basic structure of our freedom, which is the rule of law.

No man or woman - no matter how highly placed, no matter how effective a communicator, no matter how gifted a manipulator of opinion polls or winner of votes - can be above the law in a democracy.

That is not a counsel of perfection; that is a rock-bottom, irreducible principle of our public life."

The quotation was from Abraham Lincoln, "Address to Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, January 27, 1838," in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1832-1858 (New York: The Library of America, 1989), p. 32.

Good books read (or re-read) lately

The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. The talk about kites in pre-Communist, pre-Taliban Afghanistan makes me think of the descriptions of pigeon-racing in Belgium before World War I, in After the War by Richard Marius, one of my favorite books.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!: A Novel by Fannie Flagg. My wife picked this up for me from the library, I certainly would not have predicted the mother's secret.

1776 by David McCullough. This book made me think of the Jamestown book I read not too long ago - the survival of the American experiment was a close-run thing, even before it got started.

It Doesn't Take a Hero : The Autobiography of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf by Norman Schwartzkopf. This book on re-reading makes me wonder all over again, who was surprised by anything that Dick Cheney has done since 2001? He was doing it back then.

Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham. This book is absolutely delightful, and the very best part is the description of Rick's first meal in Parma. This book makes me think that Grisham has a few quarterback flights of fancy, going back to his high school days - supposedly he was a quarterback back then, like the local lawyer in A Time to Kill. Having been a tourist in Italy with just about as much sophistication or lack thereof as the hero of the book, I found it entertaining as a travel and food book - the football part is the least of it.

Frank Kilgore wants to take away your fried chicken

Here is a piece of writing by St. Paul lawyer Frank Kilgore, on educating Appalachia out of poverty and disease.

It says in part:

"[O]ur region’s health care statistics are still shameful, and the images of the huge crowds at annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) health care events in the Virginia communities of Wise and Grundy are not acceptable in the world’s richest nation in one of the nation’s richest states. When under served citizens will stand in line for hours and sleep in cars overnight just to have a throbbing tooth pulled or to obtain life saving medicines, something very bad has gone wrong."

It also says:

"Holding parents and caretakers more accountable for harming children with second hand smoke, drug use and alcohol abuse would be a good start as well. The throngs of adults who attend coalfield higher education institutions should follow the examples of the Appalachian School of Law and the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy. These graduate schools located in Buchanan County, Virginia are national leaders in requiring community services of their students to promote healthier living, leadership and guidance to the young generations who will soon face the option of staying in their coalfield communities to seek higher education and making a difference, or leaving the region and continuing the “brain drain” that ultimately disables progress."

I heard an interesting discussion while driving back from Nashville last night, either Fresh Air or some similar left-wing Public Radio program, and the gist was that the European Union is more intrusive in matters of public health and safety - because there the government winds up footing the bill for the health consequences.

Washington Post approves Rosenstein for Fourth Circuit

The Washington Post editorializes here in support of the nomination of Rod S. Rosenstein to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, rejecting the arguments put forth by Maryland's Democrat senators.

Judge Millette gets Court of Appeals vacancy

I had heard that Governor Kaine was going to appoint Circuit Court Judge Leroy Millette to the Virginia Court of Appeals, and yesterday he did.

The press release from the Governor is here.

The Baltimore Sun ran this profile on Judge Millette at the time of the D.C. sniper trial in Prince William County, over which he presided. It says among other things that he is a William & Mary law graduate, evidently from the same class of '74 as Judge Glen Conrad of the W.D. Va.

West Virginia Supreme Court overturns verdict against A.T. Massey in Harman Mining case

As reported here, the West Virginia Supreme Court overturned the $50 million plus verdict against A.T. Massey in the case of Caperton v. A.T. Massey, in a split decision. The Court held that the plaintiffs' claims were subject to a constractual forum-selection clause, specifying Virginia, not West Virginia, and that they were also barred by res judicata, based on Virginia law as applied to the now-final prior litigation in Virginia.

Check it out.

In his dissent, Justice Starcher begins: "The majority’s opinion is morally and legally wrong," and goes on to talk about Don Blankenship and his attempts to influence judicial elections in West Virginia. There's never been a dissenting opinion like it issued by the Virginia Supreme Court, surely.

As I've written before, in earlier times, several of the earliest federal judges of the Western District of Virginia came from what is now West Virginia, and but for the location of some railroad lines, some say Southwest Virginia would be in West Virginia - yet I read Justice Starcher's dissenting opinion and West Virginia seems very far away and different from here.

Next week in the Fourth Circuit

Here's the online argument calendar for next week's session of the Fourth Circuit.

One case is about the constitutionality of the exception to Virginia's FOIA for inmates.

One case is about whether a letter of reprimand is an adverse employment action for purposes of Title VII.

One case is a constitutional challenge to North Carolina's campaign finance laws.

One case is about standing in connection with a constitutional challenge to zoning limits on the location of methadone clinics.

Dogs and the law

On the same day the Roanoke paper ran this profile of Jill Deegan, a Botetourt County assistant Commonwealth's attorney who specializes in sophisticated handling of animal abuse cases, the story got out that the United States is looking to get about $1 million from Michael Vick for the cost of taking care of his old dogs.

Watch what you ask for

Here is the Virginia Supreme Court order from the case of the temporary injunction against the sale of the paintings, from this post of the Art Law Blog.

So, there you have it. I complain about not seeing the order, but no it was online after all. And, the order says - nothing in particular about the basis for the Court's decision.

You'd think that if the College is nearly broke, it is the side more likely to be irreparably harmed by a delay of six months.

Reason No. 1001 why all orders and opinions should be published, on the Web, and in the public eye

The Lynchburg paper reports here, inscrutably, that the Virginia Supreme Court has reduced the bond necessary for a temporary injunction against the sale of those paintings in the Randolph College/Maier Museum case.

What? You can't tell from the news story whether this is an outrage or not. You can't tell from the website, because the Supreme Court won't publish orders like this, for reasons that make just about as much sense as their continued use of the courier font for their opinions - that is, no reason at all, that's just the way it has been done, just another random relic of history that's long since lost its purpose. Heck, even the State Department scrapped the courier font in 2004, as described here.

Now, font preferences are one thing, but the relative inaccessibility of the Court's orders is an issue of open government, and the current way of doing things is wrong, in my opinion, as I have said here many times.

Rosenstein nominated to Fourth Circuit

Also on November 15, President Bush nominated Rod J. Rosenstein from Maryland to succeed the late Judge Murnaghan on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

As previously noted, Maryland's senators are not on board with this nomination.

Here is an editorial from the Baltimore Sun, and here are stories from the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and the Baltimore Examiner.

With the nomination of Mr. Rosenstein, there are now four nominations to the Fourth Circuit waiting Senate action, the others being Judge Robert Conrad of North Carolina, Steve Mathews of South Carolina, and Duncan Getchell of Richmond. There is one more vacancy to which no one has been nominated, to replace former Judge Luttig.

Two E.D. Va. judgeship nominations

According to this press release, President Bush has nominated Mark S. Davis to succeed Judge Ellis and David J. Novak to succeed Judge Payne.

Davis is a circuit court judge in Portsmouth, Novak is an assistant U.S. attorney.

Here are reports from the Daily Press, the Virginian-Pilot, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and here's a snippet from the AP.

Evidently, Senators Webb and Warner are both on board for these choices.

Judge Davis previously worked with the law firms of Carr and Porter in Portsmouth and McGuire Woods in Norfolk, or so suggests Westlaw. Mr. Novak was recognized last year along with others from the Moussaoui trial team, with the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering the Interests of U.S. National Security.

On Southwest Virginia courthouses

VLW Blog links here to this story in the Bristol paper that says Smyth County has agreed to spend $24 million to upgrade the courthouse at Marion.

I've been in the courthouse up there many times. I'm not sure that it is any worse or less secure than the courthouses in Lee County and Scott County, or Dickenson County and Buchanan County for that matter, but maybe it is. I don't know the set-up of the juvenile courts in those places, where the security risks are very real. The Tazewell County courthouse was redone and seems very nice. The Washington County courthouse is confusing but it has far better security than the others. The Wise County courthouse is also confusing but at least the main courtroom is pretty far from the street.

Michael Large has cool virtual tours of some of these buildings on his website.

Probably the most interesting looking was the federal courthouse they tore down in Abingdon.

Courthouse security is better everywhere now than it was. Years ago, while I was still in law school, I went to Russell County for the first time to see part of a murder trial, where the defendant was represented by John Lowe. During one of the breaks, I stood out on the front porch for a while looking out over the town when I realized the fellow standing next to me, having a cigarette and sharing the view, was the defendant.

The only "modern" building for miles around is here in Bristol. (The buildings in Christiansburg and Bristol and maybe Jonesville are, as I recalls, the only Southwest Virginia courthouses that didn't qualify for the book, Virginia's Historic Courthouses.) The story is often told that while the design of the Bristol complex was lauded as escape-proof, with underground connections between the jail and the court, supposedly the defendant at one of the early trials in the new building ran out of the courtroom and out the front door.

One retired local lawyer told a similar tale recently, or maybe it was the very same case, where his court-appointed client fled the premises after the jury had retired, prompting then-Judge Davis to comment that the defendant was apparently dissatisfied with his lawyer's summation.

On Steven Rose

The Johnson City paper has this obituary, which reads in part:

"Steven C. Rose was born in Kingsport, Tennessee, on January 18, 1952. Husband, father, son and lawyer, he passed away unexpectedly of a sudden heart attack at his home Tuesday morning, November 13, 2007. He was 55-years old.

Steve was the son of Cecil and Virginia Rose, and he was a life long resident of Kingsport. He graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in 1970, where he played on the varsity football team under coach Tom Pugh.

He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he graduated with honors with a degree in Business Administration. He attended the University of Tennessee Law School and graduated in 1977 and while attending was member of the school’s esteemed “Tennessee Law Review.”

He was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1977 and began practicing law as an associate at the law firm of Hunter, Smith & Davis. In 1983, he left Hunter, Smith & Davis and joined Mason Dixon Tank Lines, Inc. as Executive Vice-President. In 1984, he returned to the practice of law with M. Lacy West, deceased, under the firm name West & Rose. He practiced law with Lacy for 22 years and was joined in the firm by Lacy’s wife, Julia West, and recently by his son, Curt Rose. He loved the practice of law and was one of the fortunate few who got to make a living doing what he loved.

He served on numerous Boards of Directors including past President of Mountain Region Speech and Hearing, past President of Friends of Allandale and past President of Kingsport Swim Association. He also served as past President of the Kingsport Jaycees, past President of Rotary of Kingsport and past President of the Kingsport Bar Association. He recently had been appointed to and served proudly on the Tennessee State Judiciary Selection Committee.

Steve’s pride and joy was his family; he lived every day to the fullest and enriched the lives of those he had the pleasure to meet. He will be sorely missed by his family, friends and colleagues."

Why isn't the Ninth District part of the State of West Virginia?

This page purports to have the answer.

It says in part:

"Had the official split occurred 90 years earlier, the boundary may have been the crest of the Blue Ridge. Had the Civil War occurred in 1850, then West Virginia may have included what is now the Ninth Congressional District. Once the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad was built, connecting Southwest Virginia with Tidewater ports, subsistence agriculture was replaced with a cash economy based on tobacco. As part of the cultural change, slavery became more common in the region - and of course the counties went into debt to help finance the railroad. The boundary commission that recommended what counties should be included in the new state purposefully excluded those counties with a heavy debt load."

On the Civil War origins of the Virginia church property statute

This interesting article from the Washington Times about the pending litigation in Northern Virginia over the division of church property on account of splits within the Episcopal Church traces the origins of the statute at issue, Va. Code 57-9, to the day when congregations split over the issue of secession, prior to the Civil War.

The article begins:

"The largest property dispute in the history of the Episcopal Church, brought on by divisions over a homosexual bishop, is likely to turn on a Civil War-era Virginia law passed to govern churches splitting during disputes over slavery and secession," and notes that "many of the documents filed by the breakaway churches talk of 1860s splits among Baptists and Presbyterians over slavery and secession, including an 1867 article in the New York Times."

Worth reading

Over the weekend, I read Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia, an excellent book. The subject matter is the economic and political decline of Virginia from 1820 to 1860. Previously, I linked to a review of this book.

One of the many themes is that you can find a quote from Jefferson (or Madison) to support about any proposition, at least as regards the balance between state and federal power - for better and for worse.

Another theme is that at least to some degree, Virginia's elite had choices, and what they chose was to cling to their own wealth and power at the expense of democracy and progress, for reasons both rational and irrational, with results that were both predicted and predictable.

I wonder how this book compares with, for example, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy.

The author Susan Dunn is cited in this article, in the Washington Post.

There are No Fourth Circuit Opinions Today

That's what the e-mail says.

A few election notes

Among the races I noticed:

Ex-mayor of Roanoke Ralph Smith got into the Senate.
VBA Board member Robert Hurt got into the Senate.
Bill Carrico and Anne B. Crockett-Stark stayed in the House.
Poindexter beat Ferguson, in that wacky race.
Neo beat Tolliver for Commonwealth's Attorney, as Buchanan County entered the Matrix.
The incumbent Short beat the challenger Short for Commonwealth's Attorney in Dickenson County.
In Lee County, everyone who testified for the plaintiffs in the Chadwell and Laster (not Lester) trial lost - D.J. Barker, Pete Sumpter, Robin Robbins - but Bill Willis and Ty Harber got back in, and John Marion was re-elected, so three-fifths of the 2000 school board will be reunited in 2008.
The clerks of court in Russell County and Montgomery County got voted out.
Sheriff Broadwater got voted out in Scott County.
Here in Washington County, Mark Graham lost to Tricia Phipps by a wide margin in the race for clerk of court.
In Wise County, only one D. Mullins was elected, and Rocky Cantrell did not get in for School Board.

The most provocative result was for Dickenson County School Board - William A. "Bill" Patton 496, Write-in 496.

Worth 1,000 words

I told Jina Sauls that this picture would be popular.



Here are Stephen Armstrong, Whitney Caudill, The Honorable Robert J. Humphreys, myself, and Lindsay Brubaker. The story is here.

Bloggables

Here's a story from the Norfolk paper on the plethysmograph case, out of Tazewell. It quotes Steve Emmert, who wonders, how will Judge Vanover forget the bad evidence on remand? The case is Billups v. Com., an opinion by Senior Justice Russell, reversing the Court of Appeals. Justice Kinser wrote a separate concurring opinion, joined by Justice Agee. My post about the panel decision of the Court of Appeals is here.

Here's a story from the Lynchburg paper on the DUI case, which says you can't be under the influence of drugs if they weren't "self-administered." The case is Jackson v. Com., an opinion by Chief Justice Hassell, reversing the Court of Appeals..

Mr. Gibson at the Charlottesville paper had this piece on why using bad drivers as a fund-raising tool is bad policy. Here's the full research report. The Media General story was published in the Bristol paper next to an article about how Sheriff Newman in Washington County uses bad drivers as a fund-raising tool - but the paper endorsed him anyway.

This story from the Roanoke paper says a writ panel declined the petition for appeal of MeadWestvaco in a $7 million suit against Buena Vista.

Here's a great profile of a former mayor and state court judge from Alexandria, who decided after he got married at age 76 that he should have tried it sooner.

Here's an opinion from the D.S.C. that says a blogger is not liable for calling someone a "yes man", but the yes man's lawyer is liable to the blogger for filing a bogus lis pendens on his real property.

This article from the Fredericksburg paper says a panel of the court of appeals is going to have a session there, while this article says the court of appeals affirmed the conviction in a pit bull case. The pit bull case is Large v. Com.

Here's a funky story on the mud in the Wise County clerk's race.

Here's somebody's alternative take on the Judge Shull case.

E.D. Va. order of acquittal in money laundering case reversed

In U.S. v. Hoffler-Riddick, the Fourth Circuit in an unpublished per curiam opinion for the panel of Judges Traxler and Shedd and District Judge Moon of the W.D. Va. reversed the District Court's order directing an acquittal on the money laundering charges against a former local government employee from Norfolk, whose financial advisor boyfriend set up a transaction to help a drug dealer with no credit history.

Worth reading, every word

The most recent edition of the VBA Journal contains the remarks of Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, delivered to the Summer Meeting of The Virginia Bar Association in 1947, about the Nuremberg trials, in which he was a prosecutor for the United States. He concluded: "We have given the world an example of a trial and hearing instead of executing people in cold blood."

Other speeches made by Robert H. Jackson can be found here.

The Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond has been working on a Nuremberg trials courtroom exhibit.

On the passing of a Sunday School teacher

H.C. Kiser, Jr., died this week. A short obituary is here, and it says in part: "He touched many lives with his testimony of his World War II POW experiences and his desire for everyone to know the Lord as revealed in his favorite Scripture, "Jesus says, I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5)."

I've mentioned before the book about him.

Here is a short excerpt from the book, retelling the story I heard parts of at different times over thirty years ago. The date was October 12, 1944, American airman H.C. Kiser was 19, his bomber was on fire in the sky over Italy, and he was confronting the first crisis of his life:

"H.C. could look out on either wing and see smoke and flames coming out of the engines. He knew, perhaps, it would just be a matter of time until the plane exploded. H.C. and Doug Johnson, both waist gunners, were to bail out of the same escape hatch. Their oxygen was gone, and they were gasping for breath. . . .

H.C. had on fleece-lined gloves, and he crawled over to a metal door handle marked 'Pull in case of emergency.' He pulled his right glove off and grabbed the handle. His hand stuck to the door latch. Gasping for breath, he couldn't release his hand. The other waist gunner, Doug Johnson, came over and put his hand over H.C.'s. They both pulled, and the big door blew off into space. A 50-below-zero wind came rushing up and hit them in the face. They regained their senses from the blast of cold air and began to argue who would jump first - neither of them had ever jumped.

During the course of the argument, Doug pointed at H.C.'s chest parachute. His parachute had popped open when the plane was hit. The ripcord that he was to pull for a successful shoot opening was gone. The contents of the parachute had popped out into the plane and were scattered all up and down the waist of the plane. . . .

Doug said he wouldn't jump without helping H.C., and there were no extra parachutes on the plane. H.C. told him not to risk his life. After much hesitation, Doug jumped. H.C. watched him as he cleared the plane and reached for the rip cord; he pulled it and the parachute successfully opened.

[H.C.] crawled on his hands and knees down through the fuselage of the plane, gathered up all of the tangled shroud lines and the canopy of the parachute, and crawled back to the escape hatch. H.C. had gathered the parachute into a large bundle. In fact, the bundle was larger than the opening out of which he was to bail. H.C. kept trying to compress it small enough to get out of the door.

Finally he did this and began to pray: 'Lord, I don't know what to do, but I just pray that you will help me make the right decision: should I bail out or should I right this burning bomber down?' H.C. said, 'I had seen many planes go down and they usually burst into flames. It seemed like the Lord just said, 'H.C., I am a God of miracles; and if you will just leap out into space with a torn parachute, I will show you that I am a God of miracles.' Some time back in his Sunday School class, as a teenager, H.C. had a teacher who said when the book of Acts was finished that God no longer had to do these mighty miracles as He did when he was here among men. H.C. said, 'I knew that if I was going to live, it would take a miracle from a might God.'

He leaped out of the plane. As he saw the plane's rudder and tail section go by, he unfolded his arms and the parachute went up in a tangled mess. H.C. began to pray that God would open the parachute. He was falling faster and faster, and the parachute hadn't opened. H.C. began to make a lot of promises to the Lord. H.C. said, '. . . I looked at my little Bulova wristwatch and I said, 'Lord, perhaps in the next few minutes I will face death because this parachute isn't opening, and I just want to praise you this morning for the fact that you have taken all fear out of death; I am not afraid to die. Lord, I am nineteen years old. If you would see to open this parachute, I will witness for you every opportunity. Lord, I am so young to die, and I am thousands of miles away from my Godly parents, grandparents, and my pastor. Lord, it is just you and I here now, and I pray to you. I haven't been a Christian long, Lord, but I pray that you will let me live.' Still nothing happened. I told the Lord that maybe this problem was just too big for him, that even He couldn't open a tangled mess. When I told Him He couldn't, He showed me He could. The parachute opened with a terrific bang. I bit my tongue, my boots almost flew off, and I began to praise the Lord Jesus because this was truly a miracle.'"

Called to Be His Servant, H.C. Kiser, Jr.: A Biography, by Beverly Harding-Mullins, pp. 27-29, ISBN No. 0966451104.

Ex-judge Shull

The Supreme Court ordered today, at the conclusion of this opinion, that "that James Michael Shull be removed immediately from the office of Judge of the Thirtieth Judicial District, pursuant to Article VI, § 10, of the Constitution of Virginia."

The opinion says: "Initially, we note that the record before us contains many letters from attorneys, court personnel, and local citizens, who have written in support of Judge Shull’s professional reputation and service to his community."

One of those letters was from me, and it said this:

"To Whom It May Concern:

Re: Judge Michael Shull

I have practiced law in Southwest Virginia since the Fall of 1990 and known Mickey Shull for some years. Mr. Shull is an engaging individual with a lively mind. He is smart and he is quick, and he is very empathetic. He has done a lot to help friends of mine from Scott County. He made an excellent living as a lawyer working out of a storefront office, with cases in every courtroom. When I learned that he was a candidate for the judgeship he now holds, I wrote to Senator Wampler to tell him that I supported Mr. Shull, and expressed the view that these qualities - his sharp intellect, desire to help people - would allow him to become an excellent juvenile judge.

Most of the time I have spent with Judge Shull (since he became a judge) has been talking about public affairs with him and other lawyers over lunch or at the courthouse. I have not appeared before him, but I have done my best to follow his career. What I have heard is that he does the Court's work with a high level of energy and that he does a good job discerning and applying the law.

I have no knowledge of the particulars of the complaint against Judge Shull that has been reported in the newspapers. It is my firm belief that Judge Shull is unbiased in his work and perfectly suited to dispense equal justice under the law, to persons of all kinds. His personality and manner of expression might not always make a good impression - sometimes he talks too loud and says too much. In spite of these quirks, I think he is a good man and so far as I can tell, a good judge also."

That's all I have to say about that.

New bankruptcy judge in Norfolk

The Norfolk paper says here that Frank J. Santoro is the new bankruptcy judge of the E.D. Va. at Norfolk.