Williams Mullen partner Robert C. Nusbaum of Norfolk was honored this week for 60 years of service to his clients.
As reported by The Virginian-Pilot, his colleagues showered the 84-year-old Nusbaum with accolades.
“He’s unwavering,” said Howard Gordon, a partner who has worked with Nusbaum for 35 years. “When he takes a position or gets involved in something, he’s in it all the way.”
Posted by Peter Vieth
When a liquor license is granted, the bar or restaurant agrees to let ABC agents come on the premises to inspect for violations.
But apparently something else was going on June 2, 2004, when a police narcotics task force in Manassas Park invaded the Rack ‘N’ Roll Billiard Club with over 50 officers.
According to the civil rights lawsuit filed by the bar owner, David M. Ruttenberg, heavily armed SWAT teams, in full tactical gear, ordered patrons and employees up against the wall to be searched. Only six or seven of the law enforcement personnel were agents of the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Board, he claimed.
In his complaint, Ruttenberg says that after a search that lasted one or two hours, the team discovered only one ABC violation: Ruttenberg kept two bottles of unchilled Mexican beer that should have been labeled as “samples.” A homeless man employed by Ruttenberg and working as a police informant, who allegedly had participated in on-site drug transactions orchestrated by local police, was the only person arrested.
The scale and scope of this police exercise is at issue in an unpublished case released yesterday from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a 40-page per curiam opinion in Ruttenberg v. Jones, the appellate court reversed Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis’s dismissal of Ruttenberg’s claim challenging the reasonableness of the administrative search, saying “we simply do not know enough about the circumstances surrounding the search and its execution to determine whether the inspection was reasonably conducted” or whether the defendants were eligible for qualified immunity.
By Deborah Elkins
Challenging the government is not working out very well for Robert Steinburg. In 2005, he was tossed out of a Chesterfield County Planning Commission meeting and charged with disorderly conduct after a heated exchange with a commission member. His civil rights suit against the commission was tossed out by federal district Judge Robert Payne last year. Now, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Judge Payne’s decision. The Richmond Times Dispatch has the story here, the 4th Circuit’s opinion is here.
We don’t know why, exactly, but WTVR has posted the FBI file on the late civil rights lawyer Oliver Hill. There are seven parts. Viewed from present-day perspective, unsurprisingly, the documents say more about the agency than the subject of its inquiries.
A tourism PR director who says he was fired for sending e-mails to various state officials cannot sue those officials for his termination, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said yesterday in ruling on the director’s civil rights suit.
Public relations director L. Meriwether German worked for the Shenandoah Valley Travel Association, a private non-profit that promotes tourism in the Valley. When members of the association complained to German about the temporary relocation of an Interstate 81 welcome center, German fired off a series of e-mails with the SVTA signature block to a Virginia state senator, a VDOT employee and to Alisa Bailey, president of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, a state agency.
In his suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, German alleged that state employee Bailey, who was unhappy with the e-mails, coerced private actors into firing him. She allegedly told German’s boss to get him to “back off.”
Private action sometimes can be attributed to the state, the 4th Circuit said in its unpublished per curiam opinion in German v. Fox. But even when a private entity is heavily regulated by or receives funding from the state, that relationship doesn’t necessarily translate into state action.
German could not show that Bailey, despite her alleged close connection with his superiors, ordered that German be fired, or that she wanted or expected him to be fired, the 4th Circuit said. It upheld U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad’s dismissal of the suit.
Retired Richmond civil rights lawyer Oliver W. Hill Sr. died this morning at the age of 100, reports The Associated Press.
Mr. Hill was one of the lawyers in the 1954 landmark decision, Brown v. Board of Education. He and his colleague Spotswood W. Robinson represented black students from Prince Edward County. Mr. Hill’s law school classmate, Thurgood Marshall, was lead counsel when the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said in a statement, “As a pioneer for civil rights, an accomplished attorney, and a war veteran, Mr. Hill’s dedication to serving the Commonwealth and the country never failed. And, despite all of the accolades and honors he received, Mr. Hill always believed his true legacy was working to challenge the conscience of our Commonwealth and our country.”
Monday morning update:
The news of Mr. Hill’s passing prompted a number of stories in the Aug. 6 editions of several newspapers. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a career retrospective, as does the Washington Post.
Mr. Hill grew up in the Star City, and the Roanoke Times offers this article. The Associated Press has a piece containing reaction and tributes from a number of Virginia’s elected officials.
Not included in the AP item is a statement from the judges of the Richmond Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, who work in the Oliver Hill Courts Building in downtown Richmond.
Chief Judge Kimberly B. O’Donnell noted, “Oliver Hill inspired many people in our nation by his extraordinary advocacy for equal justice under the law. His entire career was focused upon improving the lives of ordinary people and their families. He greatly honored this Court by allowing it to bear his name.”
