The ruling on the constitutionality of Va. Code 57-9

Here is the opinion by Judge Randy Bellows of the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, 49 pages on the constitutionality of Va. Code 57-9 as applied to the Episcopal church cases.

That thing adjudicated

In the latest VBA Journal, Judge Kelsey of the Court of Appeals has a somewhat provocative article on res judicata and Rule 1:6 as a response to the perceived defects of the Supreme Court's analysis in Davis v. Marshall Homes, Inc., 265 Va. 159, 576 S.E.2d 504 (2003).

And, I'm not sure that I entirely agree with it, which usually means that it doesn't fit with some cockamamie theory that I have been cooking up about a particular case.

Peer-to-peer network administrator convicted in W.D. Va. for pirating copyrighted material

The United States Department of Justice issued this press release detailing the conviction on Thursday in Big Stone Gap of a peer-to-peer network administrator for pirating movies and such.

The press release says: "The case is the first criminal conviction after jury trial for P2P copyright infringement. Dove’s conviction is the eighth conviction resulting from Operation D-Elite, a nationwide federal crackdown against the illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games and music over P2P networks employing the BitTorrent file distribution technology."

President Bush to attend session of W.D. Va.

The Charlottesville paper reports here that President Bush will attend the naturalization event at Monticello on the 4th.

The insignificance of Miller-Jenkins

This article on Findlaw, titled "The Virginia Supreme Court Enforces Vermont's Custody and Visitation Order Regarding a Same-Sex Couple's Child: Why an Anti-Same-Sex-Marriage State Recognized a Same-Sex Union For This Purpose", points out that the recent Supreme Court case was decided on technical grounds, and even so came with a warning from the Chief Justice in his separate opinion that might be a preview of how he (if not others) would decide future cases on the merits.

On the right of the people to keep and bear arms

The Supreme Court decided today by a 5-4 vote in the D.C. v. Heller case, that the "people" in the Second Amendment include "all members of the political community, not an unspecified subset" and to "bear arms" was used back in the day to "refer to the carrying of weapons outside of an organized militia.

One for Kurt Pomrenke fans

Here are the father of the bride and the bride, his daughter Sarah, whom I think of as the little blonde Pomrenke girl.

Most places I go, from Grundy to Norfolk, somebody knows Kurt.

The vice of moderate legislation

Justice Kennedy's opinion for the majority in Kennedy v. Louisiana might inspire some legislators (like the ones we read about from Virginia and Tennessee) to reject moderation in matters governed by the Eighth Amendment.

The legislators might say to themselves, we all need to take the extreme view on this, otherwise the Supreme Court will get the wrong idea the next time it surveys the views of "society."

Papa Joe Smiddy documentary

It says here that U.Va.-Wise has released a documentary on DVD of the life and times of Joe Smiddy.

Here is one of the best Joe Smiddy stories.

Here is one place where you can buy a "Butter Beans" CD, which is mainly what I like to listen to when I am riding in Dad's truck. This bean story has the lyrics.

Using the VLW archives

In last week's Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Paul Fletcher posed this hypothetical:

"My client just got served with papers filed by a lawyer named Steven R. Minor with the firm of Elliott, Lawson & Minor in Bristol. I don’t know this guy. How can I get some information about him and his practice?"

One of his answers was to check the archives on VLW.

That could work, evidently those archives include my name in connection with 26 opinions.

A fellow I know in Charlottesville told me a while back that he often sees my name in Lawyers Weekly. I said yes, but not all of those cases are worth bragging about, such as the one where the Virginia Court of Appeals held that I didn't miss that deadline, after all.

Fourth Circuit rejects claim to school district's information distribution system for issue advocacy

In Page v. Lexington County School District, the Fourth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Niemeyer, joined by Chief Judge Williams and Judge Duncan, affirmed the entry of summary judgment on the section 1983 claims of a citizen who sued for equal access to the school district's "information distribution system" that the district had used to oppose legislation the plaintiff favored.

The amici supporting the appellee include the Virginia School Boards Association.

If you do Virginia appeals, you must read this

Steve Emmert has an article up these days on his site that I take to mean that the Virginia Supreme Court is cracking down on procedural defaults. Similarly, VLW Blog has this post quoting Justice Keenan, who acknowledged that more Virginia appeals are getting sunk on procedural defaults.

Norfolk paper comes to Wise County

This article about the power plant in the works at Virginia City quotes one side talking about the other as saying this: "wrong on so many levels." Actually, all sides say that about their opponents all the time.

Some of the discourse reminds me of my grandmother's opposition to the federal prison in Lee County - she didn't want a bunch of escaped federal inmates running up and down Route 58.