Today in
Richmond Medical Center v. Herring, the Fourth Circuit en banc upheld the Virginia law on partial-birth "infanticide," with the six including Niemeyer, Chief Judge Williams, Wilkinson, Shedd, Duncan, Agee, and the five including Motz, Michael, Gregory, King, and Traxler. The opinion writers were Niemeyer and Michael. Earlier, the District Court and the panel of the Court had ruled that the statute was unconstitutional.
The case was argued back in October, 2008. And, if the case was argued in October 2009, with one or more of the Obama administration's nominees to the Fourth Circuit on the court, the opposite result would have been most likely.
Speaking of the Fourth Circuit, I might yet roll up to the Greenbriar for part of the Judicial Conference, which is this week, at least for Saturday morning's remarks by the Chief Justice.
posted by Steve at 4:19 PM
Why I'm going to Richmond this weekend to vote at the Republican convention for John Brownlee:
1. He was the U.S. Attorney for the W.D. Va., the head lawyer for the United States of America in (the better) half of Virginia. That's more like being Attorney General than about any other law job there is. If you look'em up on Westlaw, Mr. Brownlee's name is on Westlaw hundreds of times, just like the Attorney General's name is on every case the Commonwealth appeals or defends in federal court.
2. In the Purdue Pharma case, the Pocahontas murder cases, the Bedford fundraiser case, the Dr. Knox case, among others, that office made some gutsy calls, I think - not all of them right necessarily but none based on expediency. The buck stops with the boss when decisions about high-profile cases are made - fairly or not.
3. We've debated before whether prosecutorial experience is better than not for an Attorney General. It is. It might even be better than patent litigation experience or antitrust litigation experience.
4. The newspapers were usually on his case. The newspapers are usually wrong.
5. I first met Brownlee in federal court in Big Stone Gap in 1995 - he's lived all over Virginia, as a student in Fairfax County and Lexington and Williamsburg, as a law clerk and lawyer in Abingdon and Roanoke and Northern Virginia. I doubt that Southwest Virginia will ever be much of a priority for the other fellows.
6. His wife and the girls - lovely. He must be doing something right. And - she is on a first-name basis with Johnny Wood, from her time on TV here in Bristol.
7. He is a veteran of the military, and clerking for Judge Wilson, and working for Woods Rogers, and which of these was the more demanding I couldn't say - probably clerking for Judge Wilson. I'd vote for anybody who clerked for Judge Wilson, as those ex-clerks feel the influence of their old judges, always. The Woods Rogers litigators (including alumni) I've known all share a high level of diligence and competence, and you want them with you rather than against you.
8. He's a conservative but a free thinker, with a sense of humor. I've spent a little bit of time with him, as he came to our blogger meeting in Martinsville and one of our bar meetings in Bristol when I was running those and more recently we've met at campaign events, and he speaks well and laughs easily. I rate him as a good guy, besides everything else.
9. OK, I'll add this one - he supported the effort of my client Buchanan County to get $1 million in forfeiture money from the Big Coon Dog case remitted from the United States Department of Justice.
posted by Steve at 1:13 PM
The
Roanoke paper reported earlier that Tim Heaphy will be the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
As I wrote
here, I knew Tim Heaphy a little back in the day. And, I've seen him a few times since, at VBA meetings and in the Abingdon courthouse, a fine fellow and excellent lawyer. He and Toby Vick got the acquittal for the defendants in the Byrd Brothers trial that I watched a bit of, December before last.
posted by Steve at 1:02 PM
VLW Blog cited to
this opinion by Judge Moon, in McIntyre v. Aetna, wherein Judge Moon refused to grant the parties' motion to vacate a final judgment on appeal to the Fourth Circuit. Judge Moon held, consistent with any number of prior W.D. Va. cases, that if the parties burn the court's time by taking a case to final judgment, they're stuck with it. To similar effect were Judge Jones's rulings in
Evans v. Mullins and
U.S. Trustee v. Equipment Services.
We got Judge Glen Williams to grant vacatur in a case one time, following the steps set forth in Fobian v. Storage Tech. Corp., 164 F.3d 887 (4th Cir. 1999), but it seemed kind of a close-run thing. It is the only context I know of where the District Court gives an advisory opinion, so the Court of Appeals knows to remand the case to it to act on the motion.
posted by Steve at 2:46 AM
The Washington Post article that weighs the merits of rural broadband against the stories of Rose Hill and Lebanon cites my sister Joan.
posted by Steve at 9:28 AM
This article begins: "A six-year increase in legal aid for victims of domestic abuse in Southwest Virginia has been a success. The Southwest Legal Aid Society (SVLAS) greatly increased its outreach over that period, and the result has been a dramatic 35-percent decline in the number of requested protective orders; a much greater decline than seen statewide."
posted by Steve at 4:59 AM
Responding to one of my posts about a notorious Virginia Supreme Court case, a reader once sent me this:
There once was a couple named Zysk
Who did quite a bit more than just kiss
She sued him for herpes
He said, "I demur, please.
I think it was your *."
This limerick led to another -
From: Steve Minor
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 01:39:12 -0400
Subject: Re: Zysk
Yours deserves a "punctual" reply:
There can be no worse destination
For sodomy or fornication
Than here in Virginny
For instead of sin, we
are only allowed "!"
posted by Steve at 12:34 PM
