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Southwest Virginia Law Blog

Items of interest to lawyers in Southwest Virginia and beyond.
By Steven R. Minor

Post Frequency: 2.3/day

Last Entry: July 09, 2020 at 12:40:00

From NYT to cvilleweekly

Posted on January 31, 2009
This post laments the subpoena served on my good friend Waldo Jaquith by my good friend James Creekmore in connection with some case, and here is the Motion to Quash filed by Waldo himself, and here an outline by Conrad Shumadine from Norfolk says this on the state of the law of a reporter's privilege in Virginia:"Courts have adopted a three-part test to determine when the qualified privilege attaches...

On bowling

Posted on January 31, 2009
I think the last time Heath Miller's team played Larry Fitzgerald's team in a "bowl," Heath had a touchdown and his team won while Larry was shut down, and Judge Chad Dotson, Roy Jessee, Mitch Mobley, Will Kimbler, and I were there, for the 2003 Continental Tire Bowl between U...

On the weekend

Posted on January 25, 2009
This weekend in Williamsburg had plenty of highs and lows, the lows relating mainly to the fact that my term on the board of governors of The Virginia Bar Association is ended and I am now official a has-been.The most powerful part of the weekend by far was the presentation on understanding veterans, with the images and personal accounts from the people who have been over there, and those who have treated the ones who have been over there...

Our Fair City listed in the World's Top Seven

Posted on January 23, 2009
This article lists Bristol, with this entry -"Bristol, Virginia, USA. As a first time honoree, Bristol made an impact after taking on incumbent telcos in court and the state legislature to win the right to deploy a fiber network called OptiNet. Conceived as a backbone serving government and schools, OptiNet has grown into a fiber-to-the-premises network for business and residents in Bristol and four neighboring counties...

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Judge Wilkinson asks President Obama to go easy on the Fourth Circuit

Posted on January 23, 2009
I read this commentary by Judge Wilkinson, which may be the least comprehensible thing I ever read that he wrote. Who can tell me what he is saying?

For qualified immunity fans

Posted on January 21, 2009
Today, the Supreme Court zigged in another direction on an issue where it has both zigged and zagged, and that is the order of answering the two questions that make up the question of qualified immunity. One question is, does the plaintiff have a claim under the Constitution? The other question is, did the defendant violate the clearly-established constitutional rights of the plaintiff, of which a reasonable government official in his or her position should have known?If the courts have to answer the merits question first, then a bunch of advisory opinions about constitutional issues get generated...

A rural Virginia lawyer joke

Posted on January 20, 2009
Here it is, from the Washington Law Examiner.Harsh.

Well done, guys

Posted on January 19, 2009
Lucas Hobbs and Jim Elliott from our firm were counsel for the successful appellant in the case of Virginia Highlands Airport Authority v. Singleton Auto Parts, where Justice Millette described the issue as this:"We are presented with the novel issue whether the easement constitutes a taking of airspace requiring compensation when the property was already subject to preexisting restrictions on development imposed by the ordinance...

Worth reading

Posted on January 14, 2009
From December, the Lynchburg paper reports on the retirement of Circuit Court Judge Samuel Johnston.In Buckingham County, someone has sued the Hook for defamation.In Tazewell County, Judge Vanover upheld the immunity of the County and the School Board in a case over the death of a student...

On Fourth Circuit vacancies

Posted on January 14, 2009
Jonathan Adler says here the Democrats should do like was done with Judge Gregory and renominate and confirm Peter Keisler to the D.C. Circuit, citing this article by Quin Hillyer, which is also cited in this post on the Committee for Justice Blog.Here the NRO editors suggest the same idea as to any of Bush nominees to the Fourth Circuit, including Judge Robert Conrad, Rod Rosenstein, Steve Matthews, and Judge Glen Conrad of the W...

Civil litigation in federal court increased in 2008

Posted on January 14, 2009
A report by Law360 cited here and elsewhere says that federal court litigation was on the rise in 2008, including more employment law and products liability cases, along with more antitrust claims, more corporate bankruptcies, and more class actions.

What are the First Amendment rights of donors in support of referenda?

Posted on January 13, 2009
In California, they say that the opponents of the recently-passed referendum to re-outlaw same-sex marriage are tracking down those that gave money to advocacy groups in support of the measure and trying to make them regret their position.So, this lawsuit has been filed, claiming that the California law requiring disclosure of such contributions is a violation of the First Amendment rights of the donors, particularly because none of the rationale for intruding on the speech rights of donors in the usual campaign setting applies when there are no candidates to be corrupted by the cash...

Supreme Court history

Posted on January 13, 2009
Via John Q. Barrett, here are the proceedings of a conference of former Supreme Court clerks, discussing the 1950-1951 term, and including therein some general background of the Justices and their work.Among the tales told is this one, about Justice William O...

Lynn Dougherty's son - from Gallaudet to David Letterman

Posted on January 13, 2009
This story about the deaf son of a Bristol lawyer from the Tennessee side is really cool.

On blogging in 2009

Posted on January 12, 2009
There will be some, sooner or later.Last week, I took off for a federal court hearing in Beckley, turned around when I heard it was cancelled, then found out it was rescheduled for the next day, turned around again and headed back up there.That's just one adventure of many, already in 2009, but not much of it fit for this blog.

Bristol paper declares against cheap power, expensive power

Posted on December 29, 2008
Online today from the Bristol paper, one story denouncing the cost to consumers of electricity, another story bashing the coal business and looking forward to the "post-carbon era."Meanwhile, the NYT reports here that burning coal at home is making a comeback, while declaring in favor of a gas tax.

On Straight Creek in Lee County

Posted on December 23, 2008
This month's Virginia Lawyer magazine has an article titled: "Testing the Boundaries of the Clean Water Act on the Virginia-Kentucky Border: The Coal Industry?s Proposed Use Attainability Analysis for Straight Creek in Lee County, Virginia."The magazine says this article was written by someone who has worked for the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center over in Whitesburg.

On government officials

Posted on December 19, 2008
The NYT opines here that prosecutors should say less about the Illinois governor.Reports here and here say the Page County sheriff gets to keep his title for now.In Norfolk, a lawsuit has been filed to bar the vice mayor from serving as chief deputy treasurer, claiming there is some conflict of interest.

On coal

Posted on December 19, 2008
Coal is my worst nightmare, says the next Energy Secretary.In Kansas, they are litigating over a coal power plant.In Surry, there is opposition to a proposed coal power plant.In Abingdon, they are getting a Clean Coal and Natural Gas Energy Center.In West Virginia, there is skepticism about a $3 billion coal to gas plant...

More on dissemination of judicial evaluation data

Posted on December 16, 2008
"With respect to dissemination of information on performance evaluation, two lessons can be drawn. First, transparency about the evaluation process and specific evaluation results benefits both the public and the judiciary. The public benefits because it is able to develop an appreciation for the role of the courts beyond the outcome-based information it is likely to receive from the mainstream media or special interest groups, and can make more informed votes in judicial elections...

The end of the Sierra Club case

Posted on December 16, 2008
Here is Judge Williams' opinion at the end of the Sierra Club case.And, we won the case, so I guess there nothing more to be said.

On evaluating judges

Posted on December 15, 2008
The American Bar Association publishes something called "GUIDELINES FOR THE EVALUATION OF JUDICIAL PERFORMANCE WITH COMMENTARY."Part of what it says is this:"Guideline 3-4. When judicial evaluations are used to inform decision makers regarding the continuation of judges in office, results should be made readily available to those responsible for continuation decisions, including voters, governors, legislatures, and commissions...

On federal questions

Posted on December 09, 2008
Here from the Weekly Standard is another article commenting on the comments of Judge Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit and Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit on the Supreme Court's D.C. gun decision in Heller.Here is somebody's account of the Fourth Circuit's decision last year in U...

Judge Paul

Posted on December 08, 2008
Here you can see from the Time/Life archives a photo from 1958 of Judge John Paul of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. This is surely one of my favorite pictures of W.D. Va. judges, along with this one of Alexander Rives and this one of Alfred Barksdale.

Who are the best D.C. lawyers?

Posted on December 08, 2008
Here's former VBA president Glenn Lewis on the cover of the 2009 edition of Washington DC's Best Lawyers.Glenn Lewis is about as interesting a fellow as I ever expect to meet.

If a tree's rights are violated in the woods but nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

Posted on December 03, 2008
In Hedgpeth v. Pulido, the U.S. Supreme Court explained yesterday in essence that when the trial court commits certain kinds of error with regard to the jury instructions, the appeals court should consider "whether the flaw in the instructions 'had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict...

On used books

Posted on December 03, 2008
Not too long ago, I finally went to Mr. K's used books in Johnson City - an amazing place, until you consider, for example, all the bookshops in Charlottesville.

We love free stuff

Posted on December 03, 2008
Years ago, I bought a copy of the Manual on Complex Litigation, because it was referenced in some order I had in case that was transferred as part of multi-district litigation.More recently, I discovered that the later edition is downloadable for free from the Federal Judicial Center website...

Surviving the plunging numbers

Posted on November 30, 2008
The stock market? No, the .500 or less records at Michigan, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Auburn, UCLA, and Texas A & M, with LSU, Clemson, and West Virginia not much better - doesn't that sound like a list of the usual suspects from about 1950 to 2000? Has there been a "realignment" in college football, in the language of political theorists?

On being a criminal defense lawyer at age 88

Posted on November 30, 2008
The Atlanta paper has this fun article on an experienced lawyer in Georgia.

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