Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Remember in 2009, when 5CD congressional candidate Feda Kidd Morton accused the State Board of Elections of committing election fraud to get Virgil Goode tossed out of office? Well, the SBE is teaching the former Fluvanna Republican Party chair a thing or two about election fraud: Morton has been arrested and charged with election fraud, …

Introducing Virginia Decoded.

Since it’s Sunshine Week, I figured I should stop obsessively polishing Virginia Decoded and just make it public. So here it is. What is it? Think Richmond Sunlight, but for the whole Code of Virginia, rather than just the bills proposed each year. So why not use the official website for the code? Look at …

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s inglorious defeat at the hands of the Supreme Court of Virginia was surely not how he envisioned the conclusion of his UVA fishing expedition. Without any cause for suspicion, or the slightest evidence of malfeasance, Cuccinelli went after Michael Mann and the University of Virginia. In the multi-year saga, he couldn’t …

The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled against Cuccinelli in climate case, with prejudice.

Another round in court, another loss for Ken Cuccinelli. The attorney general issued, famously, a civil investigative demand to the University of Virginia, insisting that they turn over all records pertaining to and generated by climatologist Michael Mann. UVA refused to comply with the demand. Now the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled against Cuccinelli, …

The other reason that the ultrasound bill crumbled.

Obviously, the biggest reason why the ultrasound bill collapsed is because of its implicit requirement of a transvaginal ultrasound. It’s enormously ironic that Del. Kathy Byron is simultaneously patroning one bill that requires that an object be inserted into an unwilling woman’s vagina (arguing that such medical decisions are the role of government) and another …

5 perhaps unanticipated effects of declaring fetuses to be “persons” under Virginia law.

Fetuses must be strapped into child safety seats. (§ 46.2-1095) A pregnant woman can put her fetus in foster care. (§ 63.2-900) A judge can order that the state take legal custody of a woman’s fetus if she intends to have an abortion. (§ 16.1-246) A court is to provide a father visitation rights with …

How Del. Marshall’s “personhood” bill would render the Code of Virginia absurd.

I’ve spent a great deal of time, in the past year and a half, studying the state code. (As of next week, it’s my full-time job.) My self-assigned task has been to slice and dice the Code of Virginia into discrete units, in as many directions as possible, and fold it back on itself in …

I’m speaking at tomorrow’s Jefferson Jackson event in Richmond.

I don’t normally mention my public speaking engagements, but tomorrow I’ve got one that’s free, open to the public, and liable to be of general interest. Tomorrow is the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner, the party’s big annual event. As a part of the day’s activities, I’m speaking on a panel with former …

I seem to have this website.

I publicly launched Richmond Sunlight five years ago this week. Upon its launch I gave it to the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy because, as I wrote, “they’re non-partisan, they have an attention span longer than a housefly, and they have access to resources that I don’t.” I concluded: “I’ll run it for them …