Vacancy at the Virginia Supreme Court

There is currently a vacancy at the Virginia Supreme Court as Justice Koontz has retired. The replacement candidates are now before the legislature. If the legislature cannot decide by the end of the session, the Governor will appoint a new justice. Supreme Court Vacancy

We obviously need to remove and not have appointed justices who do not believe in the Virginia Bill of Rights, especially Article I, § 13. I kid you not, one of the people up for being a justice did not even know Virginia had a Bill of Rights. Appellate Attorney L. Steven Emmert had this to say about the recent DiGiacinto v. The Rector And Visitors of George Mason University, "Did you know that the Constitution of Virginia has a companion to the Second Amendment? It’s Art. I, §13, and believe it or not, the court has never, in all its history, issued an opinion interpreting it. I was surprised when I read that news in today's opinion," This is not a person fit to serve on the bench if he has never read Virginia's Constitution. Another person up for the job is the anti-gun former interim Attorney General Randolph A. Beales ( No guns in state parks). William E. Thro, was the former Solicitor General who was part of GMU's defense in the Circuit court in DiGiacinto v. The Rector and Visitors of George Mason University and is employed as counsel to Christopher Newport University. These are the only candidates that I know about, if there are others, please let this forum know about them.

Here are the members of the respective Courts of Justice Committees from each House:

House Courts of Justice Committee

Senate Courts of Justice Committee


It is important that these people hear from you because it may determine the composition of the bench.

"Did you know that the Constitution of Virginia has a companion to the Second Amendment? It’s Art. I, §13, and believe it or not, the court has never, in all its history, issued an opinion interpreting it. I was surprised when I read that news in today's opinion,"

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There are two ways you can read that statement. The question is, what did he mean by "that news"? Did he mean the existence of Art. I, §13, or did he mean the fact that the court had never issued an opinion interpreting it?

If the former, then you are right that he is totally unfit to serve on the Virginia Supreme Court. However, if it's the latter, then it's not as unreasonable. In the absence of any other evidence about him indicating that he is unfamiliar with the Virginia Constitution, I would be more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that he meant that he was surprised the Court had never interpreted Art. I, §13 before.

There Are Now Two Vacancies at the Supreme Court!

There are now two vacancies at the Virginia Supreme Court left open by two justices who voted against the Virginia Bill of Rights. We need to have our voices heard of who the next Justices will be or things will never change. The future is up to you. I urge everyone to contact the House Courts of Justice Committee and to tell them that the Virginia Constitution Article I, § 13 is not to be subverted by the next justices.

Here is a suggestion:

To the Honorable Members of the House Courts of Justice Committee:


Now that there are two vacancies on the Supreme Court of Virginia I am writing to express my request that the next Justices have at least two qualifications.

1. That they will uphold their oaths of office to defend the Virginia Bill of Rights and not subvert it to the United States Constitution through the doctrine of co-extensive protections when the Virginia Bill of Rights predates the United States Constitution.


2. That they will not let their personal views of the militia clause of the Virginia Bill of Rights Article I, § 13 get in the way of vigorously upholding the individual right to keep and to bear arms under that provision.

ODA 226 said:

I'd like to nominate USER to the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia!

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My thoughts exactly.

I'd like to nominate Randy Barnett to the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of Virginia!

There are two openings.

1 User
2 Valitigator

peter nap said:

There are two openings.

1 User
2 Valitigator

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