Courts
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Marsh v. Richmond Newspapers Inc.
An executive session/closed meeting based on the legal matters exemption is not justified by an attorney’s mere presence in the room
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Nageotte v. Board of Supervisors of King George County
A motion to go into executive/closed session to discuss personnel issues need not identify the identity of the employee to be discussed.
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Richmond Newspapers Inc. v. Commonwealth (Va. Supreme Court on access to courts)
In consolidated cases, several newspapers challenged trial court orders that closed to the public pretrial suppression hearings in three criminal prosecutions. The trial courts had overruled all objections by the newspapers. The Court reversed and vacated the trial court orders. It is unconstitutional to close pretrial hearings without an ‘overriding interest articulated in findings,’ and…
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Fleming v. Moore (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
A broker wanted to build a low-income residential development on land neighboring Moore, a U.Va. professor who opposed the development. The broker’s application for rezoning was denied. Consequently, he published paid advertisements in The Cavalier Daily (U.Va.’s newspaper) saying Moore did “not want any black people within his sight.” Moore brought a libel action alleging…
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Landmark Communications Inc. v. Commonwealth
The Va. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law punishing anyone who divulged information about the proceedings of the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. The defendant newspaper, after identifying a judge whose conduct was being investigated by the Commission, was convicted and fined for violating the law. The Court said the law was constitutional because…
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WTAR v. City Council of the City of Virginia Beach
An injunction is not justified where there is not a reasonable probability that violations of FOIA will occur again.
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Charlottesville Newspapers Inc. v. Berry
Charlottesville Newspapers Inc. v. Berry, 206 S.E.2d 267, 215 Va. 116 (6/19/1974) Virginia Supreme Court CHARLOTTESVILLE NEWSPAPERS, INC., DOUGLAS PARDUE, AND BENJAMIN F. CRITZER v. DAVID F. BERRY, JUDGE OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF ALBEMARLE COUNTY Upon a Petition for a Writ of Prohibition and Mandamus. John C. Lowe (Edward L. Hogshire; Lowe & Gordon,…
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Brown v. Commonwealth
Brown was convicted of a murder in an auto parts junkyard. A newspaper article published on the day after the killing quoted a “spokesman” for the sheriff’s department who gave a different version of the facts than the prosecution later presented in court. Brown wanted to make the reporter give up the identity of that…
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Archer v. Mayes
SUPREME COURT OF VIRGINIA Archer v. Mayes Record No. 8110 194 S.E.2d 707, 213 Va. 633 March 5, 1973 GRACE ARCHER AND JAMES JOHNSON v. D. CARLETON MAYES, JUDGE OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF AMELIA COUNTY; S. L. FARRAR, JR., CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF AMELIA COUNTY; JOHN L. SMITH, JAMES E. FORD AND…
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Sanders v. Harris (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
Sanders, a professor at Virginia Western Community College, sued after a newspaper wrongly reported that she improperly withheld documents from her department head. Her employment contract with the university was not renewed after the article appeared, and she was unable to obtain another position with a university. The Court affirmed a circuit court’s ruling in…
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House v. Commonwealth
The Court reversed and dismissed an indictment for a gentleman who sold the “girlie” magazines KNIGHT and RAW. They were not proved beyond a reasonable doubt to be obscene and beyond the area of constitutionally protected expressions, the Court ruled. Determination of whether a particular work of expression is obscene is not merely a factual…
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Bigelow v. Commonwealth
Bigelow was tried, convicted, and fined for publishing an advertisement in the Virginia Weekly, a Charlottesville newspaper, that advertised abortion services in New York. The Court ruled that the statute, which forbid “encouraging or prompting” abortions in any way, was constitutional. The ruling distinguished the lawful regulation of advertisements from the unlawful abridgement of free…