The Court of Appeals of Virginia, established January 1, 1985, is an intermediate appellate court of 17 judges that hears appeals from decisions of Virginia's circuit courts and the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. The Court sits in panels of at least three judges, and sometimes hears cases en banc. Appeals from the Court of Appeals go to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
In response to court action in a number of states, the United States federal government and a number of state legislatures passed or attempted to pass legislation either prohibiting or allowing same-sex marriage or other types of same-sex unions.
Adam Paul Ebbin is an American politician who is the senator from the 39th District of the Virginia Senate since January 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 39th Senate District from 2012 to 2024 and served in the Virginia House of Delegates from the 49th District from 2004 to 2012.
David B. Albo is a retired Republican politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. He represented the 42nd district of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1994 to 2018.
Gerald Edward Connolly is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 11th congressional district, first elected in 2008. The district is anchored in Fairfax County, an affluent suburban county west of Washington, D.C. It includes all of Fairfax City and part of Prince William County. Connolly is a Democrat.
Benjamin Lee Cline is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 6th congressional district since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 24th district in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002 to 2018.
Barbara A. Favola is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia. A Democrat, she has served in the Senate of Virginia since 2012, and currently represents the 40th District, encompassing most of Arlington County.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Virginia enjoy the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. LGBTQ rights in the state are a relatively recent occurrence; with most improvements in LGBT rights occurring in the 2000s and 2010s. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Virginia since October 6, 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal in the case of Bostic v. Rainey. Effective July 1, 2020, there is a state-wide law protecting LGBTQ persons from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. The state's hate crime laws also now explicitly include both sexual orientation and gender identity.
Roxann L. Robinson is an American politician. A Republican, she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2010. She represented the 27th district, in Chesterfield County, in the southern suburbs of Richmond.
Cannabis in Virginia is legal for medical use and recreational use. The first medical marijuana dispensary opened in August 2020, and adult recreational use became legalized in July 2021.
Paul Eugene Krizek is an American politician. He has served in the Virginia House of Delegates since 2016, representing the 16th district of Virginia in Fairfax County. Krizek is a member of the Democratic Party.
Lashrecse Dianna Aird /ˌla.ʃəˈɹis/ is an American Democratic politician who represented the 63rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2016 to 2022. The district includes Dinwiddie County and the city of Petersburg as well as parts of the counties of Chesterfield and Prince George. Aird served on the General Laws, Health, Welfare and Institutions, and Appropriations committees.
Redistricting has been a controversial topic in Virginia due to allegations of gerrymandering. In the 2017 Virginia General Assembly, all of the redistricting reform bills were killed.
Dawn Marie Adams is an American politician who served as the Delegate from the 68th District of the Virginia House of Delegates from 2018 to 2024. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia were held on November 8, 2022, to elect the 11 U.S. representatives from the state of Virginia, one from each of the state's 11 congressional districts. The elections coincide with other elections to the House of Representatives. Pursuant to state law, primaries organized through the Department of Elections were held on June 21, 2022. However, some Republican firehouse primaries were held on dates as late as May 21, 2022.
Glenn Allen Youngkin is an American businessman and politician who serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he spent 25 years at the private-equity firm The Carlyle Group, where he became co-CEO in 2018. He resigned from the position in 2020 to run for governor.
Michelle Lopes Maldonado is an American business leader, former corporate and tech lawyer, and member of the Democratic Party. A Virginia resident since 1993, Maldonado has served in the Virginia House of Delegates since 2022 and currently represents Virginia's 20th district. She represented Virginia’s 50th District from 2022-2024, and was a candidate for the U.S. Congress (VA-CD10) in 2024.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act was signed into law by Governor Ralph Northam in 2020. The bill establishes a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS), which mandates that the two utilities in the state, Dominion Energy Virginia and Appalachian Electric Power, produce 100 percent renewable electricity by 2045 and 2050, respectively. It also sets energy efficiency standards. Utilities that fail to comply with the RPS will pay into a fund that, in-part, goes toward training historically disadvantaged communities for employment in the clean energy sector. As it was originally written, the bill would have included joining RGGI of Northeastern US states, but that provision was pulled out and passed in a later bill.
Glenn Youngkin became the 74th governor of Virginia on January 15, 2022.
The 2023 Virginia Senate election was held on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, concurrently with elections for the Virginia House of Delegates, to elect senators to all 40 seats in the Senate of Virginia for the 163rd and 164th Virginia Assembly. Nomination primaries held through the Department of Elections were held June 20, 2023. These were the first elections held following redistricting as a result of the 2020 census. The Democrats retained control of the Senate.
