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This article marks the first Administrative Law update in the Annual Survey of Virginia Law since 2014. Looking back over the past ten years, Virginia administrative law has remained remarkably stable in comparison to federal administrative law. Debate about a “major questions doctrine” has largely been absent in a state where the General Assembly is active and remains the dominant policy-making body in Virginia government.
Debate about Chevron is nonexistent here because agencies have never received deference for their reasonable interpretations of ambiguous Virginia statutes. Still, there has been change, and this article will highlight the most significant developments in judicial decisions, as well as legislative and executive branch changes to administrative law.
But while Virginia administrative law has been stable, Virginia politics have not. The state’s political dynamics have significantly changed in the last ten years. This article predicts that, because of those trends, the next ten years will not be so quiet on administrative law.
Noah P. Sullivan *
* Partner, Gentry Locke Attorneys, Richmond, Virginia. J.D., Stanford Law School; B.A. in
Government with Highest Distinction, University of Virginia.
Mr. Sullivan is a Partner at Gentry Locke with a practice focus in Commercial Litigation and Government/Regulatory Litigation. Prior to joining Gentry Locke, Mr. Sullivan served as Deputy Counsel and then Counsel for Governor Terence R. McAuliffe. There, Mr. Sullivan oversaw the executive branch review process of all regulations in the state regulatory system. Also prior to joining Gentry Locke, Mr. Sullivan worked as a litigation attorney for the better part of nine years at the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.