01/25/2018 Senate Proceedings

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Index

SB792—00:01:30
SB49—00:04:04
SB85—00:00:58
SB420—00:06:25
SB614—00:00:56
SB615—00:00:44
SB833—00:06:00
SB106—00:00:50
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:20
SB108—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:34
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:03:28
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:10
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:48
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:16
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:12
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:10
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:26
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:28
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:40
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:34
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:18
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:22
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:28
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:28
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:30
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:26
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:56
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:12
SB108—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:45
SB105—00:00:12
SB106—00:00:20
SB108—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:44
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:56
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:22
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:20
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:46
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:14
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:50
SB108—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:14
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:50
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:24
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:04:54
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:56
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:56
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:26
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:12
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:22
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:26
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:34
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:30
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:43
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:30
SB108—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:52
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:02:26
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:06:00
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:01:08
SB105—00:00:40
SB106—00:00:48
Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester)—00:10
Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax)—07:00
Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria)—00:04
Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax)—00:04
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Minutes

Called to order at 12 m. by Lt. Governor Justin E. Fairfax

Prayer offered by The Reverend Sandra B. Kerner, St. Lukes
Episcopal Church, Powhatan, Virginia

ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS: quorum present

Motion of Senator Marsden dispensed with reading of Journal (36?Y
3?N)

COMMUNICATION FROM HOUSE (HN10124): reading waived (37?Y 3?N)

The House of Delegates has passed the following House bills: HB
150, 155, 241, 291, 322, 520, 531, 558, 569, 789

House bills referred: see January 26 Senate Calendar

BILLS REPORTED

From Courts of Justice: SB 14, 35A, 71S, 78, 108A, 159
rereferred to Finance, 181S rereferred to Finance, 210, 465 rereferred to
Finance, 524, 525 rereferred to Finance, 526S, 533S, 535A, 536S, 563S
rereferred to Finance, 618S rereferred to Finance, 828S rereferred to Finance,
895A

From Education and Health:

From Transportation: SB 84A, 125S, 129, 213S rereferred to
Finance, 291, 307S, 359A, 446A, 532S, 701, 873A, 877A

BILL REREFERRED

From Courts of Justice: SB 904 rereferred to Finance

On motion of Senator Norment, the Senate recessed at 12:30 p.m. to
reconvene at 1:00 p.m.

The Senate reconvened at 1:00 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Legislative Information System

Transcript

What follows is a transcript of this day’s session that was created as closed-captioning text, written in real time during the session. We have made an effort to automatically clean up the text, but it is far from perfect.

[Unknown]
Pleased to have the visitors with us today. >> Thank you.
Kirk Cox
Point of personal privilege? >> Gentleman has the floor.
[Unknown]
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
[Unknown]
Mr. Speaker, I was driving to Richmond this morning and listening to wmal, and heard that a statement, a press conference -- I 'm sorry, a press release had been issued from the attorney general. I guess around 5:30 in the morning, when he wouldn't have to answer a lot of direct questions, concerning a decision he made not to defend the 2006 voter approved marriage amendment. And this was kind of surprising, because just on January 11, he took an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of Virginia, not parts of it, not the parts that he likes, but all of the constitution, Mr. Speaker. Now, I am, this morning -- I have this morning looked at the code of Virginia where you will find the rules of Virginia supreme court, and the canons of professional ethics for attorneys. Under lawyer-client relationships, you will find a lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client, competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill on this, and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation. Well, Mr. Herring decided that our constitutional amendment is unconstitutional yet he was supposed to review this thoroughly. Interestingly, the supreme court does not agree with him by an action of theirs recently in refusing to uphold a decision of a federal district court striking down the one man, one woman constitutional amendment in utah. The attorney general there, not dealing with his personal opinion, but dealing with the constitution of utah, asked the supreme court to stay the implementation of that decision. The supreme court decided, yes, we will stay that decision. Same sex couples will not be getting married in utah. Or, look at the 14th amendment, Mr. Speaker, passed in 1868, with all but one state had antisodomy laws on the books and considered such actions felonies. What was his research there? In the 1890s, Mr. Speaker, when utah was seeking admission to the union as a state, from its status as a territory, the united states supreme court clearly upheld the definition of a marriage as between one man and one woman against the polygamist practices of some in utah and the utah government. That was when the 14th amendment was very fresh in everyone's mind. Nobody found some secret provision here allowing two guys to get married. Moreover, that was a territorial provision that the congress had passed. This wasn't just simply a state provision. So the congress took an oath to uphold the constitution, 14th amendment did not allow marriage to be defined as anything other than a union of one man and one woman. Moreover, the united states congress required several of the western states to have provisions rejecting polygamy inserted into their constitutions. Now, what happened to Mr. Herring's research or representation? Did he, in fact, comply with the requirement of rule 1.1 on competence? Let's go over here to diligence. A lawyer shall act with reasonable diligence and promptness in representing a client. Well, this is, what, 12 days into the term, he is already casting the people of Virginia off his roll dex list. A lawyer shall not intentionally fail to carry out a contract of employment entered into with a client for professional services. When Mr. Herring accepted the office of attorney general, he accepted the professional responsibility to defend his client, the people of Virginia, who spoke very clearly in 2006, 57 percent to 43 percent, that they wanted marriage only to be limited to one man and one woman. And point c under rule 1.3 diligence, a lawyer shall not intentionally prejudice or damage a client during the course of the professional relationship. Well, Mr. Speaker, when you claim for all the world, not having done sufficient research, that, in fact, your client's case is bad, it's just like a defense attorney saying my client is guilty, your honor, what's next, this is not adequate representation. He is clearly prejudiced the -- he has clearly prejudiced the case against the people of the commonwealth of Virginia to his great detriment. Now, let's look at this other part, preamble, lawyer's responsibilities. Section 11 here, Virginia rules of professional conduct. A lawyer shall demonstrate respect for the legal system and those who serve in it, including judges. While it is a lawyer's duty when necessary to challenge the rec titude of official action, it is also a lawyer's duty to uphold the legal process. What is part of that legal process? Virginia code 2.2-500 allows an attorney general to decline to represent the commonwealth in a case, provided he or she takes appropriate action to ensure that the general assembly's interests as representatives for the people, in upholding their statute, is upheld here. Did our attorney general do that? No. He said he's going to attack this. He's going to file a brief to help ted olson wreck what's left of marriage in Virginia. Now, who's left on that, Mr. Speaker? Let's go to the other pecking order here. 2.2-510 talks about when the governor determines that because of the nature of the legal service to be performed the attorney general's office is unable to render such service, then the governor shall issue an exemption order stating the particularity of the facts and reasons leading to the conclusion that the attorney general's office is unable to render such service. The governor May then employ special counsel to render such service as he May deems in and proper. Apparently there's no phone between the attorney general's office and governor, because we did not hear the announcement from the chief executive that he would step in because Mr. Herring decided to step out. And not just step out, but to squash the opposition. So Mr. Speaker, we are faced with a crisis that I have not seen in my 23 years here in the general assembly. Mr. Herring has personal objections to this, we all understand, so he has a conflict of interest, a personal one. Okay. Appoint someone -- you should have appointed someone to represent the people of Virginia. You didn't do that. Well, governor mcawfulil -- mcauliffe, are you going to appoint anybody to defend the people of Virginia for an institution which is ordained by the creator, has never been considered even in the most crazed times in rome or greece to be a union of two men or two women. Always between a man and woman. Mr. Speaker, these are not easy times to deal with, and it's not an easy decision that the attorney general has made and frankly, someone should look at the code of professional conduct at the Virginia bar association to see if in fact the attorney