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The large majority of accusations like "they're violating a court order!" when it comes to public officials are bullshit and misunderstandings of the court order or what the response is.
There's various ways this happens.
One way is that the court order never actually said something to begin with. For example it's a mainstream belief that Andrew Jackson had defied the courts, but it couldn't possibly be true because there was nothing for him to defy
..
And even that issue was resolved before the court had reconvened, having went into recess before hearing about Georgia's desire to refuse the order.
Another way is that they simply try to achieve the same or similar goal using a different method that is not ruled against. Two major examples in recent history being the Biden admin "defying" the courts on student loan forgiveness or Trump "defying" the courts on tariffs. They might have wanted to make themselves seem tough, but the reality is that they obeyed the ruling and just chose another statute or law to argue their actions for. It might be a little scummy, but it's not disobeying the courts. Oftentimes they'll change their policy and behavior a little to match as well, the Biden admin student loan forgiveness that did get through legally was a lot less broad and Trump's tariffs have been weaponized a lot less for petty grievances.
A third way is that the case is in appeal and there's a stay (or not a stay or whatever depending on the context) and things haven't actually been hashed out to the point that defying the courts is an actual thing yet. For example, see how long the Trump admin was able to stall bringing back Kilmar Abrego Garcia from CECOT. The Trump admin never technically defied the courts, they just stalled things out.
Most likely you just don't understand the situation well and there is nothing to update on like basically every accusation that happens in this manner. If/when the courts actually start to bring up charges for disobeying an order and it's not just random Internet pundits making claims, then I'll bother with any updates.
The order is here, the motion and relevant exhibit here.
HB1525 specifically spelled out : "That the Department of State Police shall administer, enforce, and otherwise implement § 18.2-308.2:5 of the Code of Virginia from the effective date of this bill." The final judgement from the court specifically said : "The Virginia Department of State Police, and all law enforcement divisions, agencies, and officers within the Commonwealth, to include their successors or replacements in office, are hereby permanently enjoined and prohibited from administering, enforcing, or otherwise imposing upon any person the requirements of, the Act (Va. Code 18.2-308.2:5)." The state is administering the act, and informing businesses using VACheck that they must comply with the law.
There is no appeal; the case reached final judgement, despite Jay Jones' best efforts to illegally intervene before his term began.
How convenient that you never have to even examine claims that might possibly challenge your priors.
What an absolutely fascinating and specific phrase to use, when you specify charges. Is the principle here that the judge would have to use criminal contempt -- the thing he wouldn't be able to enforce against state police administration if Jones is backing them -- rather than civil contempt, before you think it's defiance of a court order? Or that a finding by the court that the state was violating the injunction doesn't count?
((I first want to apologize for not getting to your other question yet. It's kind of a complicated answer and I thought I had answered it already but I've been too busy lately to give a proper response. But I haven't forgotten about it.))
I'm not going to comment on the merits of the underlying arguments, but I'm addressing @magicalkittycat's assertion that this isn't just an AG blatantly ignoring a court order. I've looked at the docket and there's more going on here than the VCDG is claiming in their press releases. When the state filed their motion to vacate on May 4, they took the position that the order was already mooted by intervening legislation and that they were only filing the motion out of an abundance of caution. I can't read the individual filings, but the court granted an order on May 5, which I'm presuming was an administrative order reopening the case. In Virginia you have 10 days to respond to a motion. VCGA did not respond to this motion. They did not request an extension. There is nothing but radio silence on the docket. On May 27, after more than 20 days have passed, the AG directs the state police to begin enforcing the law. A day later VCGA is ready to roll with a motion to show cause. That same day, the state filed an objection to the plaintiff's motion and a hearing was scheduled for today at 1:30 pm. Yesterday, VCGA filed a response to the state's May 4 motion to vacate.
From where I sit, it looks like the VCGA deliberately failed to respond to the motion because their own motion which is heavy on bombast and light on substance asking for sanctions looks better in a press release than a boring reply brief that addresses the scintillating topic of mootness. Especially if they don't have any good arguments and know the case is dead in the water. They certainly didn't issue a press release when they filed the response yesterday. My guess is that after they moved to show cause the state objected that they weren't in a position to do so because they hadn't responded to the motion to vacate. Normally if a party opponent doesn't respond to a motion I'd get them on the horn and ask if they'd made a mistake or need more time, and if I went straight to a judge the judge might cut them some slack. I don't know what attempts the state made here, but if their position was that a vacation wasn't necessary then it could undermine their argument if they go too far out of their way to seek a court order, like scheduling a hearing, for example.
So things are pretty clear when it's crickets for three weeks and as soon as enforcement begins the plaintiff is ready to go with a show cause motion the next day. I don't know if the hearing scheduled for today was on the show cause motion or just on the objection. Since the plaintiffs filed their response to the May 4 motion after the hearing was scheduled, the hearing may have just been on the objection, and the parties may have worked out among themselves that they could cancel it if the plaintiffs filed a response.
I want to refrain from looking at the merits of this case, but based on VCGA's behavior, they probably aren't great for them. At least, this isn't the way one acts in front of a court when they have a winnable case. If they had responded to the original motion and the court held a hearing and determined that the order was still in effect, I'd support your position that the AG is acting in bad faith and deliberately disobeying it. It's quite a different thing if the AG takes a position that a motion isn't necessary but gives you the opportunity to have your day in court anyway, and your response is to ignore him and then try to get sanctions later. This is the kind of behavior that pisses off judges.
Injunction still active after today's hearing. The judge and threatened contempt for any further violations, but no contempt finding. VCheck has supposedly removed the requirement.
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I will try to respond to this more in depth later, but :
Where are you getting this rule? The only place I can find 10 days specific isthe Virginia Supreme Court; this case is operating at the Lynchburg Circuit court level, and Virginia circuit courts look to range from having long periods or depending on hearing days or both for normal rulings (eg 14 days before the next hearing Friday for Fairfax) , and then high-complication ruling schedules are entirely up to the judge since they can set a response schedule of their own.
This seems wildly incompatible with Walker v. Birmingham. Doubly so when a) the new law hasn’t gone into effect yet, and b) it literally said to enforce the enjoined statute, but even presuming it did genuinely moot the case, that still doesn’t automatically invalidate an injunction.
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I definitely agree that stalling things out and slow walking your actions can be scummy behavior, but whether or not that fits contempt of court can be highly contextual and dependent on the ground level specifics.
This falls into the third type of example I gave in the original comment! The Trump admin slow walked the return of Abrego Garcia for months. Maybe we can argue that it's contempt from the spirit of the law and were behaving in a scummy manner, but they never once committed any actually legal contempt. You are allowed to draw out a case even if you think you will probably lose, because you might win and you can exercise a full fight.
Same thing, they're allowed to slow walk or whatever if they want (within some amount of behavior obviously), but we can also agree it's scummy to try to lie and claim the AG is in contempr when you just ignored them.
To be clear, my argument that it isn't contempt isn't that the plaintiffs did something scummy, but that intervening legislation mooted the order. Suppose A sues B because B built a structure that doesn't conform to setback requirements in the zoning ordinance, and the court issues and order that B demolish the structure within 90 days. If within that 90 days the municipality changes the zoning ordinance so that the structure now conforms to the setback requirements, the issue is mooted. You can ask that the court vacate the order, but as a strategic matter it's probably better to ignore it since there's no reason to incur additional legal fees if you don't have to. Wait for A to sue you for contempt and lose; no judge is going to impose sanctions in a case like that.
The one thing I will say about the plaintiff's failure to respond is that, theoretically at least, their non-response turned the state's motion into an unopposed motion, and while there's no mechanism akin to a default, they could have just submitted it to the court for a judge's signature, and he could have granted it regardless of the merits of the case. Realistically the judge will probably schedule a hearing, and only automatically grant the motion if the plaintiff fails to respond after being noticed, but it is something that can happen. Most of the unopposed motions I file, including motions for summary judgment that get us out of a case entirely, simply go to the judge without a hearing. But those are motions where the opponent has already told us they don't plan on opposing it, because most lawyers actually respond to our motions, and even if they don't, we deal with the same lawyers all the time and prefer to maintain cordial relations with them. But I'd have no problem being aggressive if it's some out of state firm that's being dickish and I don't care how much I piss them off.
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If he's actually violating a court order and doesn't fall into one of the various reasons for why such accusations are often bullshit then we can wait and see the contempt of court charges that eventually get brought.
Spoiler, it probably won't happen. Not because of unfair courts, but because state officials actually defying the court is extremely rare and almost every accusation whether against the right or the left is bullshit for some reason or another. There are tons of weird technicalities and abilities to delay and burdens of proof and etc etc etc whatever shit that go into it and generally it's "you don't actually understand the law" or "you don't actually understand what's going on in the case" or "you don't actually understand what is happening on the ground level to begin with and there has been no contempt" and other such explanations.
Yeah it's pretty nice, and convenient, for me that I live in a society where public officials don't typically disobey the court and basically every single accusation that they have is a misunderstanding of something by idiots.
Has he been found in contempt of court either civil or criminal in any way yet? If that has happened, I would presume you would actually say so.
Not "he has been accused of it by political opponents". Or "the judge has weighed in on the possibility" or anything like that. Has he been found in contempt of court?
Does his being found in contempt of court factually change whether he violated a court's ruling?
If not, what purpose does the question serve other than as a deflection to addressing the claims of fact presented and disputed by gattsuru? You are certainly appealing to vague possibilities ('very rare', 'weird technicalities' 'basically every single accusation... is a misunderstanding of something by idiots'), but you're not actually disputing the claims presented by gattsuru. You're not even claiming that your language of frequency even applies to this case- even if corruption of this sort is very rare, that has no bearing on a case that can be drawing attention for being rare. It would be akin to disputing accusations of medical malpractice because most doctors don't commit medical malpractice. The appeal to statistical rarity is irrelevant if the challenge is based on a dependent rather than independent factor.
Gattsuru is making a direct position on a matter of laws and facts here. You seem to disagree. On what grounds that apply to this case? What is gattsuru's misunderstanding in this matter? What is the weird technicality that applies to this case law?
No but being found in contempt of court is a pretty solid piece of evidence he did it, whereas not being found in contempt of court is a pretty solid piece (although not as solid in this direction) that it hasn't happened. The court system is generally reliable.
Now the court system is also slow and it could be that we are just in the period between contempt happening and contempt being found by the courts, which in that case I can update when it happens instead of speculating on a situation where most accusations are bullshit.
Two things are rare.
Officials defying the court is rare
Layman accusations that an official denied the court being true is also rare.
The rarity of the 2nd does apply here, because he's making an accusation that a public official defied the court. But normally such accusations are not true! I covered numerous examples of how this happens in my comment beforehand.
The challenges themselves being true is statistically rare!
It's like an accused drunk arguing the breathalyzer was faulty. That does happen sometimes (it's probably way more common than officials in contempt of court) and it's probably more likely in cases where the accused drunk contests the charges. But it is still also true that the large large majority of the time the accused drunk contests the charges, the breathalyzer was properly working.
So 1. "The breathalyzer actually being faulty in general is rare" and 2. "The breathalyzer actually being faulty when contested is rare" are both true statements! And a person saying "no but my case is special and it was faulty" can be generally dismissed until/unless they can show otherwise.
In court showing otherwise is pretty simple. Has he been found in contempt?
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