"In a bipartisan vote on Friday, the General Assembly of Virginia has voted to pass into law Virginia Code 18.2-5: 'Interpretations of the federal constitution and the implementation of those is not applicable to any substantive or procedural criminal law.'"
. . .
"Senator Pans (R Pitcairn) stated that he sponsored the bill because "the federal constitution has no traditional or historic relevance to the enforcement of the criminal laws of the Commonwealth and the federal courts have far over-reached their mandate to interpret the constitution when they insist on releasing murderers and thieves for minor technical violations of the federal constitution. That document was meant as a limitation on the powers of the federal government, not on the government of Virginia. Criminal law is the purview of the States and legislating from the bench by federal judges must be stopped. As we all know, Mr. Jefferson made his opinion known on this when he wrote that 'whensoever the General government assumes undelegated powers, it's acts are unauthoritative, void, & of no force.'"
. . .
"Delegate Salyer (D Pastorville) sponsored the bill in the House. "I think the rights of Virginians are protected under our own constitution. Our constitution begins with the rights of our citizens. It wasn't an afterthought like the federal rights. It's the interpretation of this document which should be paramount in Virginia, not a federal copy passed into law as an afterthought."
. . .
"The primary question remaining is whether Governor Kaine will veto the new law. His office refused comment yesterday. Gilbert Michaels, a professor of political science at UVA Norfolk, said that he doubted Governor Kaine could afford to waste political capital opposing this law. Professor Michaels stated that he thought Kaine had to much invested in his transportation issues to confront the General Assembly over a law which every Democrat not from a major metro area has signed off on. As well, he thought that the governor might be concerned about losing votes in rural Virginia."
Via the Tri-Cities Herald-Tribute
3 comments:
If it weren't April 1st, I would've believed this "story."
what is that 14th amendment deal anyways????
Didn't they try this once before? I take that back -- it was twice before. I was forgetting about the old (that is, even older) Senator Byrd's massive resistance.
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