State and Local Government Policy Clinic

In 2020, UVA Law's newly-created State and Local Government Policy Clinic took on its first major project: policy assistance to the state's Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law. Clinic students served as the research staff for the Commission and contributed memos, policy recommendations, and reports. The UVA Law Library’s archival collection of Clinic records preserves this work of the Clinic on its first major project.

The Commission

In the summer of 2019, Governor Ralph Northam established the Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law under Executive Order 32. Northam charged the Commission with studying the history and impact of racially discriminatory legislation in Virginia and providing policy recommendations to reduce racial inequity.

Chaired by Cynthia Hudson, Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia, the Commission also included UVA Law graduates Michael Herring and Henry Chambers, as well as Block from the UVA Law faculty, who was named Vice-Chair.

The Commission issued three reports. The first, issued in 2019, listed Virginia laws back to 1900 that were discriminatory in their text or intent but never repealed. The Commission’s second report, issued in 2021 under an amended Executive Order 32, examined the lingering effects of these laws and recommended a series of policies to address racial inequities in housing, education, health, criminal justice, voting, environmental justice, and agricultural. On the heels of that report, the Governor issued Executive Order 80, which established the Commission to Examine Racial and Economic Inequity in Virginia Law. This Commission continued the work of its predecessor with an expanded focus on economic disparities, including racial equity in rural Virginia, and issued its report in 2022.

The work of the Commission directly resulted in the repeal of numerous old segregationist laws, the affirmative passage of new legislation to address ongoing racial disparities across various areas of life, and specific budgetary actions and proposals by the Northam administration.

Special Collections and Archives

The Collection

Students, faculty, and graduates of the Law School played a significant role in the work of the Commission, and this collection begins to preserve their contributions. Specifically, Block and his clinic students and research assistants served as the research staff for the Commission beginning in 2020. Students wrote legal and policy research memos, presented their findings and policy recommendations at Commission meetings, and were the primary drafters of the second and third Commission reports to the Governor.

View the Collection