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In the late 1990s the state teachers’ organization distributed a hopeful poster. With scenes from Monticello and colonial Virginia printed in the background, the text proclaimed that “Virginians led the Eighteenth Century, Virginians can lead the Twenty-first Century.” There is a plentiful supply of documentation of Virginians providing leadership in the Revolutionary period through the…
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A sharply divided Supreme Court ignored more than 40 years of established jurisprudence in its Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision, which severely restricts the ability of employees to fight discrimination as a class-action group. In a deeply misguided opinion, the majority ruled that the women of Wal-Mart cannot band together nationwide and stand up as one…
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What do women really want from our President? This is a question President Obama should be asking if he wants to keep his job for another term — which hinges on the women’s vote. His campaign emphasizes the appointments of very talented women: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, Elizabeth Warren to…
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A delegation of government officials from Afghanistan will arrive at the U.Va. Center for Politics on Sunday, July 3 to begin a three-week session focused on foundational principles of democratic governance as well as citizen participation and civic engagement in a democratic society. This U.S.-Afghanistan Professional Partnership Program is part of the Center’s international outreach…
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If there was any doubt about the broken state of our prison system, the news this week should put it to rest. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, made up of former presidents and other luminaries from the United States and abroad, concludes that the Drug War is an expensive failure. The California prison system—which…
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President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Obamacare, into law on March 23, 2010. On the same day Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed the first lawsuit in the nation to challenge the provision in ACA that most individuals be mandated to have health insurance. Eastern District Federal Judge Henry Hudson ruled in…
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If you’re an average woman, you want two children, according to various surveys. That means you’ll spend about five years of your life trying to become pregnant, being pregnant or recovering from pregnancy, and 30 years trying to avoid it. You can do that thanks to the June 1965 landmark Supreme Court decision Griswold v….
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AFP editor Chris Graham talks Virginia news with WREL-1450AM’s “Online with Jim Bresnahan.” The segment begins with a review of the surprise news from late Thursday that has Gov. Bob McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly apparently in agreement on legislative redistricting for 2011. Chris breaks down the deal in the Senate that got all…
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The Virginia Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision issued on April 21, ruled that the widespread practice of payday lenders in Virginia of having a borrower repay a loan and immediately take out a new loan for the same amount, commonplace prior to 2009 statutory amendments, violated Virginia law prohibiting payday lenders from refinancing, renewing,…
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The Virginia Supreme Court ruled last week that when a payday lender “makes a loan to a borrower immediately after the borrower repays in full a previous loan,” that second loan was made in violation of the 2002 Virginia Payday Loan Act. An estimated 9.2 million of those type payday loans were made between 2002…
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