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Friday, August 13, 2010

Virginia's top lawyer: Smokin'

Bensblurb # 566 Aug. 13, 2010

Virginia’s top lawyer: Smokin’

Have you heard about Virginia’s new Lawsuit Encouragement Office? Most folks have, but only via its nickname: Ken Cuccinelli.

Talk about energizing the whole legal profession here and elsewhere in the country, this guy has been cooking ever since we elected him as our Attorney General just a few scant months ago, it seems. Since taking office in Jan., as abundantly chronicled in the press, he has:

--Filed suit to obtain documents about global-warming scientist Michael Mann, who got Virginia government money while doing research at University of Virginia

--Made illegal-alien stops by Virginia’s police optional, and

--Led Virginia’s so-far successful challenge of the new health care law on constitutional grounds.

So the courthouse legal-beagle lawyers doubtless are celebrating, along with the divorce lawyers. It’s true; they must be greatly heartened by the California judge’s overthrow of that state’s recent ban on gay marriages.

And--I almost forgot--Cuccinelli earlier filed suit against Obama’s EPA to keep it from unilaterally enforcing excessive clean-air regulations on major industries. Such measures have failed to pass congressional muster, via cap-and-trade global warming legislation. Even so, EPA intends to ignore reason and plow ahead with its recession-lengthening measures next year.

Call the law! Or at least our Congress people. (Note: Sen. Jim Webb may react. He’s written a fine piece on the death of affirmative action. But forget Sen. Warner. He’s seemingly disappeared into Washington’s muck.)

Our Attorney General got a lot of heat in the spring from the academic community for querying Michael Mann’s work while in Charlottesville. But his legal inquiry was merited on the basis of Mann’s subsequent publication at Penn State of an influential but greatly exaggerated “hockey stick” graph depicting global warming as being far worse than it was.

And, following on the heels of the Arizona controversy over illegal alien laws, Cuccinelli has gotten further into that problem for Virginia, with predictable howls from the ACLU. As the AP’s Bob Lewis has written, “Police in Virginia have authority similar to those in Arizona to question suspects they stop or arrest about their immigration status, [Cuccinelli] said in an advisory opinion...that law-enforcement officers can query people in connection with criminal matters only...”

Nonetheless, our next door county neighbor, Prince William County, is acting up also. Board Chairman Corey Stewart has noted, “It is disturbing that this [newly caught] accused drunk criminal [and nun killer] was not deported after we handed him over to ICE over one year ago. It is even more disturbing that [he] was released on personal recognizance...every single day federal authorities release criminal illegal aliens -- who have committed crimes from DUI to assault -- into our neighborhoods.” The feds are in an uproar over Stewart’s charges.

Cuccinelli’s challenge to Obamacare is grounded in the fact that Virginia had the good sense to enact its own legislation permitting our citizens to opt out of any mandatory payments for health care insurance before Obamacare became law . So now the courts must act on his challenge, and may throw out the health care edict before it even takes effect. Good for him.

--Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com