(Commentary by Richard Schragger, Perre Bowen Professor of Law and Joseph C. Carter Jr. Research Professor of Law) A Charlottesville circuit judge recently ruled that two statues of Confederate generals that sit in Charlottesville city parks are ‘war memorials’ under a Virginia state statute that bars their removal. While the judge’s recent decision is significant, two other issues are looming and they might be even more consequential.
When the University of California decided to walk away from negotiations with its journal publisher and push for more open-access publishing, research librarians in Virginia paid attention. “We’re definitely vigorously exploring other options and models,” said John Unsworth, UVA’s dean of libraries.
Two academics at the University of Virginia in the US are aiming to draw people into the climate debate — but not with statistics, graphs and charts. Instead, they're using music and the sounds of nature, something known as ecoacoustics, to appeal directly to the emotions and the heart.
Kevin G. McDonald, vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity at the University of Missouri at Columbia and chief diversity officer for the university system, will become vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Virginia on August 1.
Gables, decorative woodwork and front porches from Sears or Aladdin Homes became styles synonymous with American home architecture, and frequently feature on Cheap Old Houses. “These houses were aimed, not at the fancies, but at the middle class,” says Richard Guy Wilson, architectural historian and professor at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He worries about how the decline of small-town America will affect the future of these homes. “I’m an architectural historian — I believe in saving things,” he says. “But these little towns, they’re not drawing people.”
As George Yin, a former chief of staff to the Joint Committee on Taxation and current professor at the University of Virginia, explained in February congressional testimony, the historical context is that in the 1920s, the president “had unconditional access to tax returns” and consequently that “Congress wanted to give its committees the same right.” Both the White House and the Treasury Department are, however, brazenly refusing to follow the law.
The University of Virginia Medical Center is recommending you get a second measles vaccine if you haven't already. However, this only applies to people in certain scenarios.
The two cases are “almost a road map of the most sensitive hot-button issues,” A.E. Dick Howard, a law professor at the University of Virginia, told The Hill.
All but one of America's presidents between 1976 and 2004 were governors. Since then, state leaders have barely stood a chance at the Oval Office. “Don’t write them off just yet,” says Larry Sabato, director of UVA’s Center for Politics. “There’s a chance one will catch fire. We’ve got a long way to go, and surely some of the governors will get moments to shine.”
Federal law limits the kind of federal tax information that states are permitted to disclose, which could translate into criminal penalties if New York state’s Department of Taxation and Finance does not adhere to statute should Neal request Trump’s returns. “They’re bound by the confidentiality agreement that applies to all federal tax information,” said George Yin, a tax expert at the University of Virginia who has briefed congressional officials on Trump’s returns. “They have to be very, very careful in what they’re doing.”
Ashley Deeks, a UVA law professor and a member of the State Department’s advisory committee on international law, says that in this case the head of state – according to Trump – is Guaidó, and so his appointees “can actually give consent to the U.S. government to go into the Venezuelan Embassy and potentially remove uninvited guests.” And in this case, she said, “the U.S. government gets to decide, since they are a state, and the Code Pink protesters are not.”
Two years into Donald Trump’s effort to “Make America Great Again,” it seems American exceptionalism is alive and well. Certainly compared with other nations. UVA historian Peter S. Onuf said expressions of American exceptionalism were not necessarily as hubristic as they could seem from the outside, but might reflect the debate over the republic’s relatively brief history, about what America means.
Douglas Laycock, a UVA law professor and an expert on religious freedom, said at the time that the order suggests churches should not be found guilty of implied endorsements where secular organizations would not be. Laycock had not heard stories of that happening, but added that “the IRS does jawbone churches in a way that it does not appear to jawbone secular nonprofits. Maybe that’s what it’s supposed to be about.”
Democrats have no incentive to work with the president and give him a legislative victory he can champion ahead of the 2020 election, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t announced any legislative agenda this year, said Kyle Kondik, communications director at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
The connections between epilepsy and these various conditions are “intriguing,” says Kevin Pelphrey, Harrison-Wood Professor of Neurology at the University of Virginia, who was not involved in the study. “Are [ADHD and autism] in some way more directly related to the brain mechanisms that also cause epilepsy? If so, how?” he says.
University of Virginia Police Capt. Melissa Fielding has been promoted to deputy police chief, according to UVA police. The 27-year veteran of the department has risen through the ranks, beginning as a security officer in 1992 and serving as a police officer, sergeant, lieutenant and captain.
Led by professors at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, the Center for Effective Lawmaking defines legislative effectiveness as the “proven ability to advance a member’s agenda items through the legislative process and into law.” It’s that reason that Norton and the nation’s black-, other minority- and women-owned media companies are optimistic that her proposed legislation will aid their businesses, which have long played a vital role in local communities.
"We don't see many shootings with two people, and very rarely would one of them be female," said Dewey G. Cornell, an education professor at UVA’s Curry School of Education and Human Development and the director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project. "This already seems unusual, but I think we have to wait and see what the involvement was for each of these two individuals," he added.
We have ranked schools according to their percentage of 2018 graduates in full-time, long-term jobs that require a J.D., which are often seen as the gold standard for new law graduates. Here, Columbia Law School comes out of top, with nearly 94% of recent grads landing such jobs. Columbia is followed by the University of Virginia School of Law, Duke University School of Law, University of Chicago Law School and Cornell Law School.
The UVA-led Compassionate Schools Project happening at Portland Elementary School in Louisville focuses on social and emotional learning as a means to boost overall performance.