Geospatial Enforcement of 18.2-287.4

The Geospatial Enforcement of Va. Code §18.2-287.4

The Cities of Alexandria, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Falls Church, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, or Virginia Beach or in the Counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun, or Prince William.

"The General Assembly shall not enact any local, special, or private law in the following cases:

(1) For the punishment of crime."

2) Va. Const. Article IV, § 15. General laws.

"In all cases enumerated in the preceding section, and in every other case which, in its judgment, may be provided for by general laws, the General Assembly shall enact general laws. Any general law shall be subject to amendment or repeal, but the amendment or partial repeal thereof shall not operate directly or indirectly to enact, and shall not have the effect of enactment of, a special, private, or local law."

3) Benderson Development Co. v. Sciortino 236 Va. 136 (1988).

We agree that none of these steps was in itself improper in any respect, but we further agree that their combined effects have reduced the application of a general law to the kind of special legislation prohibited by Article IV, sections 14 and 15 of the Virginia Constitution.

The framers of Section 64 of the Constitution of 1902 (now art. IV, § 15, quoted above) were well aware of the danger that a general law might be converted into a special law by subsequent events, and to that end provided specific protections against such changes, whether accomplished by amendment, partial repeal, exemption, or suspension of a general law "for the benefit of any private corporation, association, or individual." Id. In Martin's Exr's v. Commonwealth, 126 Va. at 612, 102 S.E. at 80, we said: "Though an act be general in form, if it be special in purpose and effect, it violates the spirit of the constitutional prohibition." (Emphasis added). We also observed: "an arbitrary separation of persons, places, or things of the same general class, so that some of them will and others of them will not be affected by the law, is of the essence of special legislation." Id. at 610, 102 S.E. at 79."