JURIST - Virginia

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday in McBurney v. Young that Virginia has the right to exclude non-residents from accessing state records under its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The court determined the law did not violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV of the US....... [more]

On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to US General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. As part of the surrender, the US paroled Lee's army on the condition that they ceased armed rebellion. In May 1865, US President Andrew Jo....... [more]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kathryn Young, University of Virginia School of Law Class of 2013, analyzes the uses, reliability and legality of independent reports in light of their increased uses in collegiate sports...When sports scandals break, a common tool used by universities is the "independent repo....... [more]

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed into law Monday legislation requiring voters in the state present photo identification prior to voting. The governor signed two bills which established the new ID standards for elections. SB 1256 requires that voters present a photo ID that lists their address....... [more]

A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned a Virginia anti-sodomy law on Tuesday, a decade after it was invalidated by a US Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas. The decision was the result of William MacDonald's appeal of his 2005 criminal conviction f....... [more]

JURIST Guest Columnist Terrica Ganzy, Staff Attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights, argues that Georgia's "beyond a reasonable doubt standard" for finding mental retardation in capital offenses is a nearly insurmountable standard...The US Supreme Court has held that the Eighth Amendment's....... [more]

The Virginia Senate approved two bills on Friday that restrict the acceptable forms of identification that voters can present at the polls. SB 1256 requires that voters present a photo ID that lists their address, such as a driver's license, passport or workplace photo ID. HB 1337 removes utility b....... [more]

The Virginia General Assembly on Tuesday approved legislation limiting the kinds of acceptable documents that voters may use as identification for casting ballots in the Commonwealth. Specifically, Virginia Senate Bill No. 719 and House Bill No. 1337 remove "several items from the list of acceptable....... [more]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday reinstated a lawsuit by a Virginia prison inmate seeking gender reassignment surgery. The court ruled that Ophelia Azriel De'lonta, an inmate suffering from gender identity disorder (GID), has sufficiently stated a claim that the Virginia Dep....... [more]

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has sentenced former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent John Kiriakou, who was among the first to disclose information to the public about the CIA's use of waterboarding and other interrogation techniques, to thirty months in....... [more]

The Virginia Senate approved legislation on Friday that would prohibit the state government from discriminating against its employees based on sexual orientation. The Senate passed the bill 24-16 with four Republicans joining all 20 Democrats in support. Senator Adam Ebbin (D), an openly gay lawmak....... [more]