Worth noting: the only dissent in this case was from Clarence Thomas. Hopefully our governor keeps this in mind before she hands her veto pen to the Va. Assoc. of Commonwealth’s Attorneys again next year.

In a concurring opinion today, Justice Gorsuch specifically mentions the governor's recent veto of a @justicefwdva.bsky.social / @salimforva.bsky.social bill to ban 4th Amendment plea waivers. Gorsuch suggests 4A waivers may be unconstitutional, an argument VA's public defenders have made for years.

TFW when your iPhone screen breaks and in attempting to open your messages app with "best guess" screen taps, you accidentally Facetime the majority leader of the Virginia Senate (who actually picks up). Oops!

Imagine believing Va Senate Dems aren’t moderate *enough*. There are already de facto veto votes in Senate Courts, held by legislators with law degrees, who’ve prosecuted and defended cases, and sat through committee debates to ensure the concerns of VACA & police were taken into account. 1/

I don’t expect @abigailspanberger.com to agree with criminal justice reform advocates often, but I do expect better than Youngkin-grade veto explanations Nothing in the press release regarding the Governor’s veto of SB23 (banning 4th Amendment plea waivers) is true. 1/

Normalize calling out performative advocacy.

love how we killed the old, frail anti-nuke ayatollah just to have him replaced with his young, healthy son who wants nukes and who just had his father, mother, wife, and child murdered on the same day by his mortal enemy. surely this will bring peace to the region

So much effort was put into HB441, which sought to conform the Judicial Inquiry & Review Comm’n to best practices, and make it so half-assed, end of session public shaming wouldn’t be Va’s only form of judicial accountability Last night Senate courts basically treated HB441 like junk mail. Harrumph

only the Democratic Party surpasses the NBA's ideological commitment to byzantine refracted incentive-wizardry over ever actually just dealing directly with a problem

The Prairieland Trial starts today. For Trump, this is a test case to see if he can use overbroad federal racketeering (RICO) statutes, which have always been unjust, to imprison non-violent activists—specifically leftists—for their speech & assembly. 1/8 theintercept.com/2026/02/11/p...

Hear me out: mandatory minimums… but only for people who propose new mandatory minimums.

Just had a Super Bowl halftime where the singer: 1) boasts about the poor place he’s from; 2) boosts the value of agriculture; 3) celebrates small town life; 4) highlights the joy of inter-generational celebrations; and 5) promotes marriage. And tomorrow, the MAGA movement will attack it.

Voted for Laken Riley.

How many LWOP sentences, Flock contracts, mandatory minimums, pretextual stops, Brady violations & overall indefensible hypocrisy will it take before the public understands what a disappointment the “progressive prosecution” movement has been?

You know you’ve done some cool shit as a criminal justice reform advocate when you have strong & informed opinions (based on precedent!) as to which of your friends are best at drafting legislation.

I’ve never lost a debate about the efficacy or fairness of mandatory minimums, nor would any electeds if they learned the policy & how to properly respond to idiots. But, you know, if you’re explaining you’re losing, or whatever (losing votes, integrity, opportunities to correct injustice, etc)

Fact: 4 of the 10 most recent exonerees in Va. were orig. charged w/mandatory life offenses for alleged child sex crimes Nothing coerces guilty pleas from innocent ppl quite like man mins Keep that in mind as you fret over McCain/Freitas’ tweets vis-a-vis polling—err I mean as you vote your values

If there’s a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in November, this is it. Just a feckless, arrogant, out-of-touch dinosaur who couldn’t recognize a moral imperative even if it pepper sprayed him straight in the eyes.

You know what is INCREDIBLY INSPIRING? It's formerly incarcerated folks, sometimes recently so, and often repeatedly or long time so, coming to Richmond to exercise their right to petition their government, advocating for bills to make Virginia a better and fairer place. 🇺🇸

Somehow I feel like the depth and vibrance of “proud Democrat” Theo Stamos’ true colors have yet to be fully revealed. What’s next, Deputy General Counsel for Kristi Noem? Will she suit up and actually become an ICE agent? Or worse, a Proud Boy?

Every city and county in America that isn’t deep red ought to require their police chief to take a polygraph consisting of a single question — do you support ICE? I’d be willing to bet at least 80% would answer in the affirmative, or in the negative and fail.

The only explanation I’d accept for a Dem presidential candidate going to Davos is if they were there to burn it down.

You know who the best advocates for Virginians are? People who have led with their progressive values and committed their carers to their communities. State and local governments are better when these individuals are given a chance to serve.

Some call Dems the “wait in line” party b/c of how hard it is to win primaries if you haven’t spent years climbing the party ladder. The one great thing about quick firehouse primaries is they allow great people like Chris—who’ve been progressive leaders OUTSIDE of the party machine—a real chance.

Defense attorney Chris Leibig is third candidate to enter primary for Bennett-Parker’s seat | ALXnow www.alxnow.com/2026/01/17/d...

Thank you, @hopeforvirginia.bsky.social and @donscott757.bsky.social for your kind words on this, @justicefwdva.bsky.social’s 9th Annual Lobby Day—and for you & your colleagues’ continued commitment to making Virginia’s criminal legal system more sensible, equitable, and humane. We had a great day!

I look forward to a Virginia Attorney General who, like AGs of old (even Republicans), CONCEDES ERROR once in a goddamn while.

Arlington spends gobs of $/yr on fascism-enabling Flock cameras, at a time when ArlCo has no long term subst abuse treatment & an 8 wk wait for emergency shelter ACPD/Flock told the County Board chair the technology is totally risk-free & that was good enough for him arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

I talked with this Axios reporter multiple times, emailed him the black letter law on this topic, he learned a federal warrant request was denied TWICE, yet he STILL managed to feed the world a bunch of bootlicking horseshit. Good job, Marc Caputo! www.axios.com/2025/11/07/d...

Celebratory throwback to when Burt first started licking Jake’s face (on demand, I might add). Not all dogs are blue dogs, but if they had the franchise, I suspect all dogs would vote blue.

We can also treat this an an ad hoc celebration of the end of the tenure of AG Jason Miyares—the meanest, least forgiving, most brazen and despicable liar to hold statewide office in Virginia in decades. Good riddance.

We’re rallying support for criminal justice reform. Join us for a FREE TACO BAR & MARGARITAS Wednesday, November 5th from 6-8PM in Falls Church, VA. We’re honored to have special guests @parisaforjustice.bsky.social and Del. @HopeforVirginia.bsky.social! justiceforwardva.com/blog/2025/10... #valeg

While Trump and his buds let their friends who endager public safety off the hook, the level of gvt overreach and overcharging happening against his opponents, w/ the help of VA AG Miyares, is incredible. Thanks to @bradleyrhaywood.bsky.social for his advocacy. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

Gov. Youngkin, Jason Miyares and former Comm. Att’y Theo Stamos have been working with the Feds to suppress political dissent & free speech in Arlington, including through a criminal investigation of my client, as this article from The NY Times explains. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u... 1/2

Little known fact: until ‘22 @justicefwdva.bsky.social was mostly volunteer led & operated (I was never paid a dime as ED) You know what else, though? Relying on self-flagellating SJWs isn’t a sustainable business model! And fundraising is really hard! Come for the free tacos & support CJ reform!

D’Angelo’s passing hits hard. Really hard. Rest in peace. You were a true gift to this world.

I amused myself with this one. Since Bluesky doesn’t do polls, feel free to treat it like one in the comments.

Indigent defense is saying to yourself “I’ve just got to get through the next few months” for 10 years straight.

Sentencing guidelines called for 1 day to 6 months of incarceration, yet Shebri Dillon was sentenced to 30 yrs in a Virginia prison! We’ve filed an amicus brief highlighting how old mandatory jury sentencing laws support Shebri’s ineffective counsel claims. 1/4 justiceforwardva.com/blog/2025/9/...

SIKE

If you vote for a guy who unironically demands to be called “The People’s Protector,” you have no one to blame but yourself.

This person is now the top prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia. Holy hell.

This is what people like me wanted to say, if we could have found the words.

Imagine if Dems pledged to defend reproductive rights during a primary, but later in the general bragged about cutting planned parenthood funding, in order to court “centrists” who will never under any circumstances vote for them Now you know what it’s like to be a criminal justice reform advocate

All people—even fundamentally horrible people—have intrinsic human dignity. The fact that it’s not enough to ground my feelings about tragedy in a person’s inherent worth—that I must also celebrate his work & can be punished if I dont—suggests these beliefs about dignity are a 1-way street. 1/2

Top *eight* articles on NYT devoted to Charlie Kirk, top one asks if he will be remembered like MLK. This is a man who only a tiny percent of Americans had even heard of before his death, whose views are too nasty for NYT to detail. But they are trying so hard to turn into martyr.

I am advocating for you to be killed but I am using my inside voice you must debate me this is called democracy

Has Nick Freitas called off the civil war yet?

Show of hands from those who remember when shameless, preening psychopath Nick Freitas pretended to be a principled libertarian?