Public Law and Legal Theory Commons^™

Unshackled: Stories Of Redemption Among Serious Youth Offenders, Julie E. Mcconnell

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In a series of decisions concerning child defendants, the United States Supreme

Court has embraced the understanding, based on adolescent brain

development, that the legal system must recognize children are different than

adults concerning criminal culpability and sentencing. That recognition, culminating

in Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana, led to the opportunity

for thousands of individuals across the country, initially sentenced

to death-in-prison sentences when they were minors, to gain a meaningful

opportunity for release. These cases permanently banned mandatory life sentences

for children. In Virginia, the legislature now allows reconsideration

of these cases through hearings before the parole …

Unionizing In The Chambers Of Government, Louis Cholden-Brown

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

As overall union membership stagnates nationwide due to the contraction

of traditionally unionized industries, labor organizations have made historic

inroads into new, highly volatile employment sectors, including digital media,

tech, political campaigns, and the gig economy. One such sector that

has seen new life is state and local legislative employees. Excluded from coverage

by the National Labor Relations Act, legislative employees have been

subject to disparate labor rights, job protections, and terms and conditions

of employment across and within states. While efforts to secure collective

bargaining rights for this sector have occurred over the past twenty-five

years, the simultaneous yet …

Public Charge Grounds For Inadmissibility: Impact On Noncitizen Health Insurance Coverage, Madeline M. Culbreth

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The public charge rule is an ongoing barrier to health insurance for lawfully

present immigrants and ought to be removed. Healthcare coverage for

immigrants is a critical aspect of the country’s health care scheme. Recent

changes to the United States’ immigration policy are contributing to growing

fears among immigrant families about participating in Medicaid and CHIP.

The most effective solution is to permanently alter the Immigration and Nationality

Act. Congress should expressly exclude health insurance from being

considered in the public charge grounds for inadmissibility.

More Money, Fewer Problems: A Post-Alston V. Ncaa Approach To Reducing Gender Inequities In Sports, Kelley L. Flint

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In 2021 over the span of a few months, amateurism, the foundation of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association was challenged and redefined. Following

the passage of “name, image, and likeness” laws at the state level

and an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling, the NCAA’s structure has been

forced to evolve. These changes have opened up possibilities for college athletes

to monetize their playing in a model that is not based on viewership or

revenue sharing. Serious equity gaps between men’s and women’s sports

continue to exist, predicated on which sports generate the most money. While

not a holistic solution, name, image …

This Is Not New: Addressing America's Maternal Mortality Crisis, Emily Siron

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article utilizes an intersectional approach to examine the causes and

realities of the dismal state of pregnancy-related healthcare in the United

States, highlighting the disparate impact on Black pregnant people. The

enslavementand brutalization of Black women in the U.S. demonstrates how

American society systematically devalues Black health, especially reproductive

health. The impacts of this horrific history persist today, resulting in the

American healthcare system utterly failing Black mothers and pregnant people

of all gender identities. This article surveys this history and presents policy

solutions to improve maternal health outcomes for all, but especially

Black individuals, including proposed pieces …

Prefatory Matter

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

Safe At Home: Addressing Virginia's Housing Policy Concerns In A Pandemic, Ghazala Hashmi

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This article examines the crisis of eviction that exists in the Commonwealth

of Virginia and the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted

the particular vulnerability of low-income and minority communities.

Zoning policies, financing practices, limitations on tenants’ rights, and other

legal structures built into the Virginia Code underscore issues of systemic

racism that exacerbate the lack of affordable housing and instability of rental

opportunities. The article provides a highlight of recent legislation passed by

the Virginia General Assembly that seeks to address some of these concerns.

First In The South: Cannabis Legalization In Virginia, Jm Pedini, Cassidy Crockett-Verba

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In 2021, Virginia made history when it became the first state in the

South to legalize cannabis for responsible use by adults. Though legalization

is now the law of the land, which today includes personal possession

and cultivation, there remains much work to be done before Virginians are

able to legally purchase cannabis outside of the medical program. Concerns

over social equity provisions, retail sales dates, and the reenactment

clauses added during the 2021 legislative session have drastically slowed

the process of expanding the regulated marketplace to adult-use consumers.

With many key components requiring reenactment by the 2022 General Assembly …

A Year Of Monumental Change: A Review Of Virginia's 2021 General Assembly Regular And Special Sessions, Andrew Mullen

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Between the abolition of the death penalty and the continued fallout from

the COVID-19 pandemic, the Virginia General Assembly had a full plate of

legislative priorities in 2021. This Article will provide a summary of the major

bills that were introduced, passed, or that failed during the 2021 Regular

and Special Sessions. The other articles within this issue cover the following

topics in depth: reproductive justice, criminal justice legal reform, housing

policy concerns during the pandemic, cannabis legalization, and environmental

justice. This Article summarizes legislation grouped in the following

parts: I. Civil and Criminal law, II. Education, III. Labor and …

Empowering The Defense To Confront The Government's Powers: Virginia Criminal Justice Legal Reform, Bryan Kennedy, Catherine F. Zagurskie

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

During the 2021 Session and 2021 Special Session, Virginia took steps to

restore the balance between individuals ensnared in the criminal legal system

and the government. These new laws allow people who are involved in

the criminal legal system to emphasize their humanity and to hold the government

to its various burdens at all stages of the case, including pre-trial,

trials, sentencing, and appeal. This article discusses four of the most important

changes to Virginia law that ensure a more level playing field between

the government and the accused.

First, eliminating the presumption against bail challenges the government’s

power of …

Access Is Everything - Post Rhpa Virginia - What's Next? The Case For Rhea And Other Matters, Galina Varchena, Margie Del Castillo

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Virginia has taken positive forward steps to liberalize its abortion legislation,

bringing it closer in line with medical science and common sense. However,

accessing abortion care remains difficult for many, and additional legislative

measures are necessary to make the full range of reproductive

healthcare accessible for all, regardless of immigration status, race, gender,

income, or geography. The Reproductive Equity Healthcare Act, a bill modeled

in part on its Oregon namesake, is the next logical step forward towards

making reproductive justice a reality for all Virginians. While the details of

the final bill may vary, there are fundamental pillars that reproductive …

A Legal Update On Environmental Justice In Virginia: Where Are We Now?, Jasdeep S. Khaira, Patrice Lewis, Abigail Thompson, Scott Foster

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Environmental justice (“EJ”) is rapidly evolving in Virginia while people

are still trying to understand what EJ actually means. As a result, regulators

are unsure of how to incorporate environmental justice in their decisionmaking

process while the regulated are uncertain of how to proceed in the

ever-changing political, social, and regulatory landscape. This article gives

an overview of EJ’s evolution in Virginia, synthesizing notable environmental

justice legal decisions; providing supplementary research on environmental

justice studies, workgroups, and reports; and offering several predictions

on EJ’s fate in the Commonwealth.

How U.S. Society Has Treated Those With Mental Illnesses, Michael Mullan

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Persons with mental illness are incarcerated in prisons across the United States at disproportionate rates compared to the general population. Under-standing why this is so requires an examination of how society in general has treated persons with mental illnesses. This article relates a history of neglect and stigmatization in examining the entities responsible for care of persons with mental illnesses, including the family, asylums and prisons. The article identifies trends of institutionalization, deinstitutionalization, and transinstitutionalisation, whereby large amounts of inpatients with mental illnesses moved out of psychiatric institutions, into the streets, and then into the criminal justice system. The article …

Prefatory Matter

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pressure On The Trigger Will Now Fire The Weapon: An Examination Of How The Supreme Court, Congress, And Presidents Have Left The Legal Foundation For Executive Detention Akin To The World War Ii Era Internment Of Japanese Americans Largely Intact, Kevan F. Jacobson

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Contrary to Chief Justice Robert's dicta, Trump v. Hawaii (2018) did not overrule Korematsu v. United States (1944) which upheld the exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. Korematsu and its related cases are still troublingly vital. Their expansive reading of the war powers justifying executive detention has been bolstered by the Court's cases addressing detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004), which sanctioned the detention of a U.S. citizen pursuant to the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, exposed a fundamental weakness in the Non-Detention Act, the principal statutory barrier to …

From The Exception To The Rule: A Realistic Analysis And Approach For Advancing Board Diversity, Brianne Donovan

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

With companies increasingly promoting diversity and inclusion measures, how are they ensuring diversity and inclusion within their own leadership teams? The landscape for gender diversity within corporate boards is bleak and the landscape for racial diversity is worse. Throw in the intersection of race and gender and the picture becomes even bleaker. In order to combat this corporate governance issue, the U.S. and other countries have primarily focused on three regulatory approaches: (1) the quota system, (2) the disclosure method, and (3) the comply-or-explain approach. This paper addresses each approach (internationally and domestically) to implement greater board diversity for U.S. …

Federal Execution Protocols: Lessons Learned In Grammar And Reverse Federalism, Julianna Meely

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In 2019, the Department of Justice announced that it was ready to restart federal executions and issued a press release outlining how they would proceed. The Press Release dictated that the federal inmates would be injected using a one-drug protocol comprised of the barbiturate pentobarbital. This was a source of controversy as the new federal protocol was not the same protocol used in several states and the federal statute governing executions at the federal level states that federal executions be conducted “in the same manner” as the state in which the execution occurs. This discrepancy sparked litigation in which courts …

Letter From The Editor, Eudora F.S. Arthur

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transformation Of The American Legal System: Permanent Measures From Covid-19, John B. Taschner

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic upended virtually every aspect of everyday life, from grocery stores to judicial procedures. The American judicial process is a unique adversarial system that guarantees the right to confront, often before a live jury. Yet, the necessities of social distancing and protecting public health means that these once unshakeable tenets of the United States justice system have been forced to undergo watershed transformation throughout the pandemic. The word transformation is carefully chosen, as certain measures are no longer temporary. Rather, a fundamental shift in the formerly concrete facets of judicial procedure has occurred – almost certainly never to …

Cancelling Justice? The Case Of James Clark Mcreynolds, Todd C. Peppers

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Over the last several years, there has been a vigorous debate as to whether monuments and memorials of Confederate leaders and controversial historical figures should be purged from the public square. These conversations have included former Supreme Court justices and have led to the removal of multiple statues of former Chief Justice Roger Taney, author of the infamous “Dred Scott” decision. Drawing on the arguments mounted for and against the removal of statues, this article explores the decision of a small liberal arts college to strip the name of former Supreme Court Justice James Clark McReynolds from a campus building. …

United States Penal System: Approaches To Rehabilitating Minor Drug Offenders And The Efforts Of Governments To Reduce The Number Of Incarcerated Individuals, Thomas Tyler Moses

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

The War on Drugs drastically changed the criminal treatment of illicit drug users in the United States. Changes in the 1980s brought about stricter sentencing laws for simple possession of unlawful substances. While the intent of the legislature was to prevent repeat offenders through the imposition of harsher penalties, these sterner consequences have forced countless individuals into a vicious cycle of incarceration without being offered the rehabilitative services needed to address substance abuse or addiction. Historically, the legal system has treated minor drug offenders in the same regard as those committing violent crimes. Inmates leaving American prisons often find themselves …

Prefatory Matter

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor, Eudora F. S. Arthur

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

No abstract provided.

No Rest For The Weary: A Survey Of Virginia's 2020 General Assembly Regular And Special Sessions, Samantha R. Galina

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

This has been possibly the most historic year in the Virginia General Assembly in decades. During the regular session alone, 3,857 bills were introduced, spanning thousands of pages covering topics as vast as criminal justice reform to election laws to natural resource protection.1 As if that wasn’t enough, the General Assembly reconvened for a Special Session in August to address the COVID-19 pandemic, related budgetary changes, and a myriad of police conduct-related bills in response to the killing of George Floyd and the national Black Lives Matter movement. This article will provide a summary of some of the major bills …

The Virginia Values Act: A Landmark Civil Rights Legislation Leapfrogs Virginia Into A Leader On Equality, Sarah Warbelow, Cathryn Oakley

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

After more than 25 years of Republican political control, Virginia passed thirteen pieces of pro-equality legislation in 2020, the most sweeping of which was the Virginia Values Act. That legislation modernized Virginia civil rights law, bringing the state into line with the overwhelming majority of other states in addressing discrimination. In addition to adding nondiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in existing law - which included housing, public employment, and credit it created all-new protections from discrimination in employment and places of public accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, …

Decriminalization In Virginia: Marijuana In The 2020 General Assembly Session, Jenn Michelle Pedini, Cassidy Crockett-Verba

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Cannabis is regulated in over one-third of the United States and it has finally made its way to Virginia. While it is not yet legal in the Commonwealth, it has been decriminalized. This is when the criminal penalties are removed but civil penalties (often fines) remain. This is a step in the right direction but activists know that this is not enough for the communities that continue to be harmed by a failed war on drugs. The legislation in Virginia will not fix the issue of over-policing in Black and Brown communities but activists believe that it will put Virginia …

Remembering The Ladies: Taking A Look At Some Of Virginia's Most Notable Female Leaders As Virginia Fights For Recognition Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Michelle Kallen, Jessica Merry Samuels, Morgan Maloney

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In January 2020, Virginia ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, fulfilling the constitutional ratification requirements and thus enshrining it as the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This article seeks to highlight and explore the lives and contributions of some of the Virginia women who paved the way for this monumental achievement and shaped our nation and our Commonwealth. From Pocahontas to Barbara Johns and the women of the Virginia Military Institute, the history of Virginia women has been one of grit and determination even in the face of subjugation and exploitation. This article seeks to amplify their voices and …

Unallot A Lot: Virginia's Human Services Budgeting In The Time Of Coronavirus, Valerie L'Herrou, Cassie Cunningham, Salaam Bhatti

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

Virginia’s 2020 General Assembly budgeting process for fiscal year (“FY”) 2021-2022 was upended by the global pandemic which, after a rosy economic forecast for the Commonwealth, sent revenue expectations tumbling, and necessitated a nearly complete rewrite of the budget immediately upon its enactment by the legislature. Social services, an important aspect in the economic health of the Commonwealth, seemed poised to have greater support from the new Democratic majority in both houses of the state legislature as well as the governor’s mansion. But this may or may not have been true, even before the impact of COVID-19.

The Fight Over The Virginia Redistricting Commission, Henry L. Chambers Jr.

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In its 2020 regular session, Virginia's General Assembly debated whether to send to Virginians a constitutional amendment that transfers the General Assembly’s redistricting responsibility to a newly created Virginia Redistricting Commission (VRC). The VRC is a bipartisan commission of legislators and citizens that will redraw electoral districts before sending them to the General Assembly for up-or-down ratification without alteration. If a supermajority of the VRC fails to agree on redistricted maps or the General Assembly fails to approve the maps, the Virginia Supreme Court will draw the districts. The amendment triggered a fight over how to redistrict, how to end …