It occurred to me that the Virginia Local Government Law blog ought to say something about the legal issues that face local governments at the holidays. And there are many. This time of year, there are the seasonal First Amendment establishment clause issues in “holiday display” cases, such as oh-too-publicly experienced this year in at [...]

The General Assembly, Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia State Bar have combined to make the job of our local Boards of Zoning Appeals (BZAs), and that of the local government attorney who deals with them, much more complicated. As a long-time county attorney and currently counsel to the Stafford County BZA, I have seen [...]