Podcast appearances and mentions of richard schragger

Episode Notes As the Bold Dominion team works on an upcoming episode, here's one from the vaults -- a Bold Dominion classic covering the perennially important, yet frequently misunderstood, Dillon Rule. This episode originally aired in February 2021. Virginia politicians like to talk about freedom and local control. So why are local governments sometimes prohibited from addressing local challenges? The reason is called the Dillon Rule. If you're a political news junkie, you've probably come across this, but most Virginians stare at me blankly when I mention it. Basically, the Dillon Rule says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the General Assembly. (As opposed to “home rule,” where local governments are free to make any policy that isn't prohibited by state law.) How does this affect our local governments and our state as a whole? To answer that question, we talk to Richard Schragger, the Parre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. We also talk to Andreas Addison, a member of the Richmond City Council and a lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, who has dealt with the Dillon Rule as part of his legislative experience. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

A recent Governing article, “The Bad Things That Happen When States Tell Cities What to Do,” features an interview with University of Virginia law professor Richard Schragger on his book, City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. One of the major things Schragger's book argues against is state preemption—ad in general, Schragger is interested in re-articulating the appropriate constitutional relationship between cities and states. He's also expressed skepticism about regionalism as a viable strategy for equalizing the resources between cities and suburbs. So, Schragger's view is that state and federal land use interventions are typically disastrous—citing urban renewal and the Mount Laurel doctrine as examples. His concern is that state preemption will be used to override local opposition in a way that promotes market-rate developers at the expense of low-income urban neighborhoods, and that local reform to zoning needs to be driven by affordable housing coalitions and activists at the local level. State preemption is a controversial issue in the planning world, and one can't make a blanket statement on whether it's good or bad. Nevertheless, on today's episode of Upzoned, host Abby Kinney and co-host Chuck Marohn talk about whether or not there is a Strong Towns stance on the subject of state preemption. Additional Show Notes “The Bad Things That Happen When States Tell Cities What to Do,” by Jake Blumgart, Governing (June 2022). Abby Kinney (Twitter) Charles Marohn (Twitter) Theme Music by Kemet the Phantom.

Constitutional Law for NIMBYs? The guests discuss the National League of Cities' Principles of Home Rule for the 21st Century, which two of them (Nestor Davidson and Richard Schragger) helped draft and the third (David Schleicher) has criticized as "Constitutional Law for NIMBYs." Nestor Davison is the Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law and the Faculty Director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham Law School. Richard Schragger is the Bowen Professor of Law and Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at UVA Law School. David Schleicher is Professor of Law at Yale Law School and host of the Digging a Hole podcast. In addition to the National League of Cities' Principles of Home Rule for the 21st Century, the papers at the heart of the conversation are Do Local Governments Really Have Too Much Power? (by Nestor and Richard) and Constitutional Law for NIMBYs (by David). Appendices: Nestor Davison: City-Wide Effects of New Housing Supply: Evidence From Moving Chains by Cristina Bratu, Oskari Harjunen, and Tuukka Saarimaa Supply Shock Versus Demand Shock: The Local Effects of New Housing in Low-Income Areas by Brian Asquith, Evan Mast, and Davin Reed Richard Schragger: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (movie) David Schleicher: Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation by Edward Glaeser and David Cutler State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States and the Nation by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez Greg Shill: Sky-High Vaccination Rates and Zero Taxes Make Dubai a Pandemic Boom Town (in The Wall Street Journal) Jeff Lin: I Changed My Mind About Rent Control by Jerusalem Demsas From Samurai to Skyscrapers: How Historical Lot Fragmentation Shapes Tokyo by Junichi Yamasaki, Kentaro Nakajima, and Kensuke Teshima Follow us on the web or on Twitter: @denselyspeaking, @jeffrlin, @greg_shill, @davidson_nestor, @RichSchragger, and @ProfSchleich, and check out David's hit podcast (with Samuel Moyn) Digging a Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast. Producer: Schuyler Pals. The views expressed on the show are those of the participants, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the Federal Reserve System, or any of the other institutions with which the hosts or guests are affiliated.

There's an underlying principle to Virginia politics that often goes unmentioned--it's called the Dillon Rule, and it effectively says that local governments only have powers that are explicitly granted by the state. How does this affect our local legislators and our state as a whole? To answer that question, we talk to Richard Schragger, the Parre Bowen Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law and the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. We also talk to Andreas Addison, a member of the Richmond City Council and a lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, who has dealt with the Dillon Rule as part of his legislative experience.

David Troutt of Rutgers Law School and Thad Williamson of the University of Richmond discuss pathways to racial and economic equity, with a focus on the effects of local and regional housing, employment and anti-poverty policies. UVA Law professor Richard Schragger moderated the event, hosted by PLACE: The Program in Law, Communities and the Environment. The event was the third in the program’s “PLACE and Power” series of virtual conversations exploring connections between human place-based relationships and the law and politics of environmental governance. (University of Virginia School of Law, Nov. 10, 2020)

UVA Law professors Cathy Hwang and Richard Schragger discuss the academic career path and how to become a law professor. (University of Virginia School of Law, Oct. 13, 2020)

University of Miami School of Law professor Mary Anne Franks, Susan Kruth of FIRE, UVA Law student Anna Cecile Pepper ’21 and LaTarndra Strong of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition discuss the balance between protecting speech and protecting the learning environment. UVA Law professor Richard Schragger moderated the panel, which was part of the Virginia Law Review symposium “Speech Inside the Schoolhouse Gates: 50 Years After Tinker v. Des Moines,” supported by the Karsh Center for Law and Democracy. (University of Virginia School of Law, Jan. 24, 2020)

2020 is going to be an interesting year - we got elections going on in November, the Senate impeachment trial early in the year (if Pelosi ever hands over the articles of impeachment to the senate - but that is not for here right now), and Virginia becoming an interesting place to watch as 2020 starts up. If you have not been following along with what has been going out there - the quick and dirty of it is that Ralph Northam (the governor of Virginia) has been pushing for new gun control legislation - and with the flipping of the statehouse and senate from republican to democrat, he reintroduced this legislation - knowing that more than likely everything he wanted would get passed. Well, it passed and has created a lot of repercussions in the state. As of December 19th, there are 94 cities/counties that have passed local resolutions declaring themselves 2nd amendment sanctuaries. Those on the extreme side will say "these locations are not going to uphold the law" - but in honestly they are just being hyperbolic. These locations will need to uphold the law - for the most part, these resolutions are nothing more than political statements. This is according to Richard Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia School of law. He was interviewed in an article for USA Today regarding what is going on in Virginia. He further commented: "In Virginia, state law supersedes local law. Citizens and local officials have to comply with state law even if a county declares itself to be a Second Amendment sanctuary," - in other words in Virginia local law is overridden by state law and because of that if all of these laws are signed into law then these laws technically would need to be followed. But what is fact and what is fiction about what is in these laws? One of the biggest reasons that the second amendment sanctuary cities have been popping up is due to the language in one of the laws introduced into the legislation regarding gun ownership. The law as written goes after people who currently own weapons - not just the purchase, transfer, sale of firearms. Now let me state this upfront: As of today (December 28th, 2019) these facts are what they are. Things may change quickly - and soon - but as of now this is how things stand. All data is linked in the notes - including the text of the law that is being proposed. So what does the law actually say? Well if we take a look at it, it currently states: It s unlawful for any person to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, possess, or transport an assault firearm. A violation of this section is punishable as a  ****Class 6 felony. This information can be found on lines 433 - 437 of the bill. What I find interesting is that on line 433 they remove the word posses but then reintroduce the same word on line 436 - not sure why they did it that way but regardless the bill as it currently stands states that possession of an assault weapon is prohibited in Virginia. We keep hearing about how bad assault weapons are but what exactly is an assault weapon? Well, that definition really depends on who you ask. If you ask the army - there are assault rifles not assault weapons - and for a rifle to be considered an assault rifle it meets all of the following conditions: It has selective fire, It must have an intermediate-power cartridge: more power than a pistol but less than a standard rifle or battle rifle, Its ammunition must be supplied from a detachable box magazine, and It must have an effective range of at least 300 meters (330 yards). An assault weapon, on the other hand, is essentially only a politically created terminology to try to simplify the categorization of guns in-laws. In the case of Virginia - how they describe an assault weapon is interesting, to say the least. Here are some of the highlights of what this Virginia law considers an assault weapon - and all of this information can be found in the Virginia law starting on line 398: A semi-automatic center-fire rifle that shoots single or multiple projectiles with a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 10 rounds A semi-automatic center-fire rifle that shoots single or multiple projectiles that can accept a detachable magazine(of any size) and has any of the following: folding/telescoping stock, a pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a second handgrip, a bayonet mount, a grenade launcher, a flare launcher, a silencer, a flash suppressor, a muzzle brake, a muzzle compensator, a threaded barrel that can accept a silencer, flash suppressor, a muzzle brake, or muzzle compensator A semi-automatic pistol that can fire single or multiple projectiles with a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 10 rounds A semi-automatic pistol that can fire single or multiple projectiles that can accept a detachable magazine and has any of the following things from the semi-automatic centerfire rifle. Shotgun with a revolving cylinder A semi-automatic shotgun that shoots single of multiple projectiles and has any of the following characteristics: accepts a detachable magazine, a fixed magazine in excess of 7 rounds, has a pistol grip, a folding or telescoping stock, a thumbhole stock, Again - this is what is in the law as of 12/28/2019 - and various people have been upset in Virginia because of these new proposed restrictions. But there is a whole other side to this as well - the economic impact of local communities. Andrew Gilliam, a gun store owner, gave an interview to a local news station and stated: "That's what's going to get people a little bit upset because, in that bill, it says possession of these firearms and that could turn a lot of Virginians into felons overnight," he then continued "Without fully understanding what an assault firearm is, this takes away 80% of my retail," Gilliam said. "The other 20% of my retail can be bought on Amazon." "You start losing mom and pop stores and people won’t have anywhere they can go do background checks and transfers," Gilliam said. "They won't be able to transfer any weapons. It's gonna create some serious problems there. There's kind of a big ripple effect with some of these bills." Now I will say this - some of the representatives who support this legislation are stating hyperbole to sell their support on the bill. For example Ken Plum gave the following statement to a news station: "Citizens possessing what is essentially a machine gun -- you can call it a high capacity rifle, or whatever, it's essentially a machine gun --is not necessary, nor is it desirable in a civilized society, and nor is it necessary for public safety," Plum said. These guns are not machine guns. Taking a look at the definition of machines guns produces the following information: A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire rifle cartridges in rapid succession from an ammunition belt or magazine. As a class of military rapid-fire guns, machine guns are fully automatic weapons designed to be used as support weapons and generally used when attached to a mount or fired from the ground on a bipod or tripod. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation features not normally found on rifles. Since everything here being classified as an assault weapon does not even come close to being defined as a machine gun (for example even the much-hated AR-15 is a semi-automatic weapon which is one of the first criteria to be considered a machine gun) this (honestly) seems more like a political movement and less a movement based on facts.   The actual law: https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+SB16 https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/politics/2020-virginia-legislative-files-bills-before-session-gun-safety/65-a7564f8b-4787-4804-ba85-359996fc8d0a https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_gun https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2019/11/27/list-of-second-amendment-sanctuaries-in-virginia-and-where-its-being-discussed/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/11/2nd-amendment-sanctuary-virginia-counties-not-enforce-gun-laws/2610411001/ https://freebeacon.com/issues/virginia-dems-cave-on-confiscation-as-2a-sanctuaries-expand/ https://apnews.com/b83c6654e4a618aec1e88a2ca2eea07a https://budget.lis.virginia.gov/item/2020/1/hb30/introduced/1/402/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle https://flippable.org/our-targets/virginia/ https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/06/politics/ralph-northam-democratic-control-virginia-gun-reform-cnntv/index.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_fire https://connectingvets.radio.com/articles/you-have-gun-debate-make-sure-your-terminology-correct

UVA Law professors A. E. Dick Howard, Richard Schragger and Vice Dean Leslie Kendrick, along with Brian Cannon, executive director at OneVirginia2021, discuss the last term’s most influential and important Supreme Court cases, and preview what’s ahead. The event was sponsored by the Student Legal Forum. (University of Virginia School of Law, Oct. 2, 2019)

In an interesting legal maneuver, the City of Norfolk is suing Virginia with claims that the city's First Amendment rights are being violated. This is in an attempt to remove a confederate statue located downtown. Gina Gambony from WHRV Public Media spoke with UVA law professor Richard Schragger about exactly what this means. This story aired on NPR's All Things Considered newscast at 4:33 PM on Wednesday, August 22.

UVA Law professors Richard Schragger and Micah Schwartzman join Cornell’s Nelson Tebbe to discuss the evolution of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on religion.

On April 25, 2019, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Circuit Judge Richard Moore ruled that the statues of prominent Confederate figures Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are considered war memorials protected by state law. Back in 2017, Charlottesville was the site of a rally where white nationalists protested the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee. A clash between protesters and counter-protesters turned violent, resulting in the death of Heather Heyer, which sparked a national debate over these controversial statues. On Lawyer 2 Lawyer, host Craig Williams is joined by Richard Schragger, professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law, and Nestor Davidson, faculty director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham University’s School of Law, to take a look at this recent ruling, the controversy over the removal of Confederate statues and what is next in this legal fight. Richard Schragger is the Perre Bowen Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he has taught for almost fifteen years. Nestor Davidson is the Albert A. Walsh Chair in Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law and faculty director of the Urban Law Center at Fordham University’s School of Law. Special thanks to our sponsors, Clio.

How does government currently work in Charlottesville? That was the general question posted to panelists Sunday at a forum cosponsored by Charlottesville Tomorrow and the League of Women Voters. "People tend to look at local government to solve all community problems even though their powers are limited," said Bitsy Waters, a former Charlottesville mayor. "It's the job of [city] Councils to listen and figure out what they can and can't do.” The event held at the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library’s Central Branch was the first of a series designed to educate newcomers to local politics on what’s come before and what could change. "In the aftermath of the events in Charlottesville this past August, many citizens have asked us to hold educational programs that would inform citizens about how the local city government is structured today and how it might be structured in the future," said Kerin Yates, president of the League of Women Voters. Richard Schragger, a professor of law at the University of Virginia, is the author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. He said citizens should understand both how local governments fit into our country's federal system as well as how localities are structured in Virginia. "Often the folks that are exercising power are not in fact the elected officials of the city but are actually officials either in the state government or the federal government," Schragger said. "Cities all across the country are considered to be creatures of the state as a matter of federal Constitutional law." Schragger said most localities across the country have a council-manager form of government such as Charlottesville. In this set-up, elected officials serve as a legislature that acts as an executive and sometimes makes quasi-judicial decisions such as those related to land use. "We do not have a singular executive that exercises power," Schragger said. "The mayor is elected among the folks on the Council and that person speaks for the Council to the extent the Council wants them to do." Since 2010, City Manager Maurice Jones has made decisions that in other U.S. localities would be the realm of an elected mayor. In Virginia, only Richmond citizens have what is known as a "strong" mayor. "The city manager doesn't have political authority, but managerial authority," Schragger said. "It's a little bit confusing about who is supposed to do what in these kinds of systems." Charles Barbour served as the first African-American mayor from 1974 to 1976. He was clear who had the power when he was an elected official. "The buck stopped with the Council even though the city manager ran the city," Barbour said, who was served on Council from 1970 to 1978. At the time, Barbour said Charlottesville was still coming out of state-sanctioned segregation and there was an opportunity for many changes. When Barbour joined Council in 1970, there was only one African-American on the school board, which was an appointed body at the time. He nominated a second person of color. "That created a big stir because traditionally there was just one African-American on the school board," Barbour said. "If you look around today you have many things that have changed." Barbour said African-Americans in the mid-20th century and before could only live in the heart of the city. "Yet anyone could build a service station or garage next to African-American housing because that was the rule," Barbour said. "We changed those rules. We rezoned so that could never happen again." Bitsy Waters was first elected to Council in 1988 and was made Mayor during her first term, just as has happened with current Mayor Nikuyah Walker, "It was a steep learning curve," Waters said. "Lots of things have changed since then but our form of government is basically the same." Waters explained that Councilors are elected in staggered terms to provide change as well as continuity. Each member represents the entire city rather than an individual ward. She said Virginia is unique in that cities and counties are separate from each other. That leads to duplication of services. "We have the constraint of state and federal governments that have substantially reduced their financial support for schools, affordable housing and other services," Waters said. "City government does not have the financial resources to make up for all of those deficits." Waters said the effects of those constraints can be seen in current events. Council cannot remove Confederate statues in municipal parks without permission from the General Assembly. A House bill to allow cities to relocate them to a museum failed to make it out of a committee late last month. Tom Walls, executive director of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia, was also a panelist. The next event in the series will be held on Feb. 25 at the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center beginning at 2:00 p.m. The topic will be "How might Charlottesville be governed differently in the future?"   TIMELINE FOR PODCAST 0:01:00 - Introduction from Kerin Yates, president of the  League Women of Votes 0:03:00 - Comments from Brian Wheeler of Charlottesville 0:04:00 - Comments from Andrea Douglas of the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center 0:07:15 - Opening comments from Richard Schragger, a professor of law at the University of Virginia 0:21:15 - Opening comments from Charles Barbour, the first African-American mayor who served from 1974 to 1976 0:26:00 - Opening coments from Bitsy Waters, mayor from 1988 to 1990 0:38:10 - Opening comments from Tom Walls of the Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center 0:45:30 – Question and answer period begins   Download

Price Thomas, Communications for James Madison’s Montpelier, “The Mere Distinction of Colour” and Race; Richard Schragger, Professor of Law at UVA on the limitations on local governments, why it’s set up that way, what’s at stake, and what we can do about it.… Read More

Immigration and The Executive Order Travel Ban Rachel Adams recently worked alongside Syrian refugees in Greece; Harriet Kuhr, Director, International Rescue Committee (IRC); Elizabeth Valtierra, Chicana teen activist; Richard Schragger, University of Virginia, law professor, expert on the constitution, and city law… Read More

Michelle Wilde Anderson of Stanford University, Sheila Foster of Fordham University, David Imbroscio of University of Louisville and Richard Schragger of UVA Law discuss Schragger's latest book, "City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age." UVA Law professor Maureen Brady introduces the panel. (University of Virginia School of Law. Nov. 19, 2016)