Tyler C. Southall*, From Animal Control to Zoning: 2019 Local Government Law Update, 54 U. Rich. L. Rev. 133 (2019).
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The goal of this Article is to review significant recent developments in Virginia local government law. First, this Article discusses a number of Supreme Court of Virginia and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals cases published between July 1, 2018 and July 1, 2019. These cases involve questions of the First Amendment and social media, the First Amendment and employment law, attorney-client privilege and Freedom of Information Act requests, vested rights issues in zoning ordinances, the powers of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and public finance. Second, this Article addresses new laws from the 2019 General Assembly. It is impossible to cover every important case and every relevant statutory amendment, so this Article focuses on the most important and/or interesting new cases and new laws.
* County Attorney, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. J.D., 2009, University of Virginia School of Law; B.A., 2006, University of Virginia. Any views expressed by the author are his own and not necessarily the views of Dinwiddie County. The author is indebted to the format used by Andrew McRoberts and Steven Durbin in an excellent previous University of Richmond Law Review piece on local government law. Andrew R. McRoberts & Steven V. Durbin, Annual Survey of Virginia Law: Local Government Law, 47 U. Rich. L. Rev. 257 (2012). The author thanks the editors of the University of Richmond Law Review, who provided many helpful comments in the editing of this Article. Any errors are the author’s own.