Free Republic

Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam will have much to apologize for if he signs into law a bill that attacks Virginia citizens' Second Amendment rights. The measure is Senate Bill 16, which would ban "assault" firearms and certain firearm magazines. Since Democrats have seized control of Virginia's General Assembly in the last election, they are likely to push hard for strict gun control laws. Those laws will have zero impact on Virginia's criminals and a heavy impact on Virginia's law-abiding citizens who own, or intend to own, semi-automatic weapons for hunting or their protection. As a friend once explained to...

https://gunowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/GOA-VCDL-Response-to-Herring-AO-December-26-2019.pdf (Sorry folks, I am unable to post the .pdf document at this time. Can someone else post it? Thanks!)

In a bid to intimidate the 100+ local governments that have declared their jurisdictions sanctuaries for the Second Amendment right to bear arms, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion declaring these declarations “have no legal effect. Local officials cannot nullify state laws. They must follow the gun laws passed by the General Assembly.” Herring sought to distinguish “this unwarranted usurpation of higher authority” from “the entirely legitimate grants of sanctuary to illegal immigrants by local governments across the nation. The choice of where one prefers to live is a fundamental human right that supersedes any laws impeding...

Attorney General Mark Herring released a statement after resolutions were passed by localities across Virginia declaring themselves exempt from new gun safety laws that the General Assembly may enact. He said localities and local constitutional officers “cannot nullify state laws” and must follow gun violence prevention measures passed by the General Assembly.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion stating that the resolutions that more than 100 localities across the commonwealth have passed declaring themselves "Second Amendment Sanctuaries" have "no legal effect." Herring, a Democrat, said Friday the localities and local constitutional officers “cannot nullify state laws” and must follow the gun laws passed by the General Assembly. "Neither local governments nor local constitutional officers have the authority to declare state statutes unconstitutional or decline to follow them on that basis," Herring wrote in the opinion. Spooked by Democrats taking control of the General Assembly and promising to pass gun...

With Virginia’s top three elected officials engulfed in scandal, fellow Democrats were rendered practically speechless, uncertain of how to thread their way through the racial and sexual allegations and the tangled political implications. […] Everyone in Richmond, it seemed, was waiting Thursday for Virginia’s Legislative Black Caucus to respond. The caucus has been calling for Northam’s resignation over the past week but was silent about the latest developments. “We’ve got a lot to digest,” the group’s chairman, Del. Lamont Bagby, said Wednesday. …

Virginia politics descended further into chaos on Wednesday, and Democrats in the capital grew more dismayed by the possibility that a trio of scandals involving their top three statewide officials had laid waste to years of work building up the Democratic Party in the commonwealth. The controversies have created a pseudo-standoff between scandal-plagued Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, all of whom are fighting to hang on to their jobs as public outrage grows around each of them. None of them wants to resign first, creating a scenario where all of them could hold...

If the governor of Virginia should resign from office for wearing blackface, then so should the state’s attorney general, by his own logic.

Richmond, Virginia (CNN) Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring admitted Wednesday that he appeared in blackface at a 1980 party, further plunging Richmond into chaos as Democrats here struggle to overcome a trio of scandals rocking their three top statewide elected officials. Herring said Wednesday that he wore blackface as a 19-year-old to dress up as a rapper at a party.

#BREAKING: RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Virginia's Democratic attorney general says he wore blackface at a college party in 1980, deepening state scandal

In a dramatic moment during a House hearing on Monday, Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz slapped an FBI official with a subpoena for all documents related to the Hillary Clinton email investigation. “Will the FBI provide to Congress the full file with no redactions of personal identifiable information?” Chaffetz asked Jason Herring, the FBI’s acting assistant director of legislative affairs, during a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing. “I cannot make that commitment sitting here today,” Herring said.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia will no longer recognize concealed handgun permits from more than two dozen states that have less stringent laws. Attorney General Mark Herring said Tuesday that the state will revoke its reciprocity agreement with 25 states after a review found that their permit requirements are weaker than Virginia’s. The change takes effect Feb. 1.

Friend- Earlier this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court announced marriage is legal for same-sex couples in Virginia. And the Fourth Circuit Court issued a mandate so that same-sex couples across the Commonwealth can be issued marriage licenses, starting right away! This is amazing news. Just days into office, I conducted a rigorous and thorough review and concluded that Virginia's marriage ban is unconstitutional. Together, we have put Virginia on the right side of history in one of the defining civil rights issues of our time. But the real heroes are the same-sex couples in Virginia and across this nation who...

The Attorney General of Virginia recently released an opinion sure to delight rapists, sex traffickers, and pedophiles all over the state, freeing them to do more of their deeds without fear of being known. No longer do medical personnel–which includes abortion clinics–need to report suspected rape when a teenage girl is found to have an abortion. According to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, those reporting laws only apply if someone thinks a parent or guardian raped a girl.The opinion, which includes, “prenatal or abortion services” as possible rape indicators that no longer have to be reported to law enforcement, was...

Friend– HUGE NEWS: Today, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed what so many of us know to be true: "Virginia's same-sex marriage bans impermissibly infringe on its citizens' fundamental right to marry." By upholding the constitutional rights of all Virginia families, the Court has joined many Virginians—and Americans—in supporting true equality. Click here to join me now in hailing the Court’s decision to agree that it's time to put us on the right side of the law and history. When I took office, we faced a court date in just a few weeks and had to decide whether...

Richmond, VA (1140wrva.com) _ Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is advising Virginia's colleges and universities and the Virginia Community College System that under current Virginia law, Virginia students who are legally present in the United States under the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program qualify for in-state tuition, provided they meet the state's domicile requirements. In a letter sent to Virginia's college and university presidents, the chancellor of the community college system and the State Council of Higher Education, Herring says the students, often called "DREAMers", will still need to gain admission to an institution of higher education, maintain...

It is time for Virginia to be on the right side of history and the right side of the law. That's why after thorough legal analysis, I recently announced that I have concluded Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and that I therefore cannot defend Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage in court. Instead, the Commonwealth sided with the plaintiffs who have brought this case and with every other Virginia couple whose right to marry is being denied. As Virginians, we need to stand united...

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring will announce Thursday that he believes the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that Virginia will join two same-sex couples in asking a federal court to strike it down, according to an official close to the attorney general with knowledge about the decision. The action will mark a stunning reversal in the state’s legal position on same-sex marriage and is a result of November elections in which Democrats swept the state’s top offices. Herring’s predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, adamantly opposes gay marriage and had vowed to defend Virginia’s constitutional amendment banning...

State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain(R) will concede the race for Virginia attorney general to Democrat Mark R. Herring on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the decision. Obenshain’s announcement will put an end to a drawn-out contest that, on election night, was the closest statewide election in history. Obenshain campaign spokesman Paul Logan did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Wednesday. Herring had significantly widened his slim lead over Obenshain in a statewide recount that began Monday and was scheduled to finish on Wednesday.

Stealing elections is an old game politicians play. Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president, got to the U.S. Senate in 1948 by “winning” the closest race in Texas history by a margin of 87 votes out of more than a million cast. An election judge in tiny Alice, Texas, said he counted more than 200 names on the voting roll for Box 13 that were written in alphabetic succession in the same hand, same color of ink. When a federal court subpoenaed Box 13, it was discovered to be “lost.” LBJ took his seat in the Senate. Voting machines were...