Virginia@: Your June 28th Sunday Summary ...

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Dear Friend of TJI,

After attempting to impose a "one size fits all" re-opening plan for schools as he did for businesses, Governor Ralph Northam was reminded by Senator Bill DeSteph that the Virginia Constitution leaves decisions about school management up to local School Boards. Northam accordingly sent his Chief of Staff to the podium to explain what should have been explained to the Governor in the first place (click here). We are struggling very hard to resist the temptation to declare the Governor "moonwalked" back his original decision.

Meanwhile ...

1.) This isn't the only place Northam is being challenged. Senator Chap Petersen, a Democrat is doing it in court. Notes Petersen: "This is a unique situation in Virginia history. The Virginia Code defines an emergency situation as one in which the legislature cannot be called, such as during a flood or a civil disturbance. But Northam has been running the state by executive order instead of recalling the General Assembly. He declared a major emergency in mid-March. It's three months later. He's had plenty of time to get the legislature's input in the process." The Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star editorializes in favor (click here).

2.) Schools are not the only institutions dealing with proposed regulations from Virginia's Governor - regulations that are circumventing established procedure in the name of "State of Emergency." The Northam Administration's Safety and Health Codes Board is about to approve a regulation governing COVID in the workplace, but the nature and exact wording of that regulation remains undecided. It comes with heavy penalties for employers cited for failures. OSHA has already rejected the AFL-CIO's petition for these standards and the US Court of Appeals denied their petition to compel OSHA to issue the standards. No other state has done so. Virginia would be first. Our Senior Fellow for Tax, Steve Haner, has the story here.

3.) Another rule: Busch Gardens has 383 acres. Governor Northam lumps them in with your local bowling alley and has the same cap on attendees (the only state to do so). So Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion remain closed. Kerry Dougherty comments in Bacons Rebellion. (click here).

4.) Haner, meanwhile, is busy. He also appeared on an American Legislative Exchange Council podcast talking about "The Road to Higher Taxes" (click here).

5.) Policing reform is on the agenda for the upcoming General Assembly special session and the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (VLBC) has already issued its agenda (click here) followed up by that of the Senate Democratic Caucus (click here). Former Senator (and former Virginia State Trooper) Bill Carrico, a potential Republican candidate for Governor, commented on some of their proposals on a VirginiaFREE webinar (click here).

6.) Not on either agenda is preventing police Collective Bargaining Agreements from including negotiated discipline and accountability, which all too often protects bad cops to the detriment of the public and good police officers. Our commentary offering some examples is in the Charlottesville Daily Progress today (click here). John Stossel, in the Daily Signal, agrees (click here).

8.) Statues are coming down, being destroyed or defaced, from Confederate Generals like Robert E. Lee to ... Union military leaders (you know, the guys that fought the Confederates?) like Ulysses S. Grant and David Farragut. Over at National Review, Conrad Black argues "The Fight Against Statues is a Fight Against Civilization" (click here). His editors also weigh in, with "Statues and Limitations" (click here). BET Founder Robert Johnson went on Fox News to mock the crowds pulling down statues and canceling TV shows (click here). At the American Enterprise Institute, Gregory Weiner notes "The mob who toppled monuments to Junipero Serra, Francis Scott Key, and Ulysses S. Grant would compress past, present, and future into the almighty now." (click here).

9.) Next statue on the list appears to be Abe Lincoln himself, where the Freedman's Memorial (or Emancipation Memorial) is now protected by guards. The memorial, paid for by freed slaves, depicts Lincoln holding the Emancipation Proclamation as a freed slave kneels below, his bonds being severed. National Review's Jack Butler tells the story behind the memorial, noting that dedication speaker Frederick Douglass sized Lincoln up pretty well when he said Lincoln "was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country."

But Douglass had a better sense of history and his times than the mob does today, noting "taking him for all in all, measuring the tremendous magnitude of the work before him, considering the necessary means to ends, and surveying the end from the beginning, infinite wisdom has seldom sent any man into the world better fitted for his mission than Abraham Lincoln." Read Butler's piece by clicking here. Even better, read Douglass' speech in full by clicking here.

Finally, there will be no Sunday Summary next week. We'll be busy declaring our Independence. See you on July 12.

Happy Sunday Everyone.

Now go hit the road, complete with closed amusement parks.

Cordially,