Case Title: Palmer v. Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC

Citation: 

Docket Number: 160630

State: virginia

Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Date: 2017-07-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
PRESENT:  Goodwyn, Mims, McClanahan, Powell, Kelsey, and McCullough, JJ., and Millette, 
S.J. 
 
HAZEL F. PALMER 
 
 
 
OPINION BY 
v.  Record No. 160630 
JUSTICE WILLIAM C. MIMS 
 
 
 
July 13, 2017 
ATLANTIC COAST PIPELINE, LLC 
 
FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF AUGUSTA COUNTY 
Charles L. Ricketts, III, Judge 
 
In this appeal, we consider whether a foreign corporation may exercise the entry-for-
survey privilege given to natural gas companies by Code § 56-49.01.  We also consider whether 
Code § 56-49.01 infringes upon provisions of the Constitution of Virginia. 
I. Background and Procedural History 
 
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC (“ACP”) is a public service company organized under 
the laws of the State of Delaware.  It is primarily “engaged in the underground storage and 
transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce.”  As such, it is a “natural gas company” as 
defined by 15 U.S.C. § 717a(6) and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) under the Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. § 717 et seq.  ACP is 
engaged in FERC’s regulatory approval process to build a natural gas transmission line that 
would extend from West Virginia to North Carolina, passing through the Commonwealth.  As 
part of this process, ACP must conduct surveys, tests, appraisals, and other examinations upon 
properties located along the pipeline’s proposed routes. 
Hazel Palmer owns real property in the Commonwealth along a proposed route.  On 
March 6, 2015, ACP sent Palmer a letter seeking permission to enter her property to conduct 
preliminary surveys.  When Palmer withheld her consent, ACP provided a notice of intent to 
enter her property pursuant to Code § 56-49.01.  The notice explained that Code § 56-49.01 
2 
 
“authorizes certain natural gas companies to enter upon property, without permission, for 
examinations, tests, hand auger borings, appraisals and surveys for proposed natural gas lines in 
order to satisfy regulatory requirements and to select the most advantageous route.” 
Palmer continued to deny ACP access to her property, and ACP filed a petition for a 
declaratory judgment in the circuit court requesting a declaration of its rights under Code § 56-
49.01.  Palmer filed a plea in bar, contending that Code § 56-49.01 only applies to domestic 
public service companies because it is within Title 56 of the Code of Virginia.  She also 
demurred, arguing that Code § 56-49.01 is unconstitutional under Article I, § 11 of the 
Constitution of Virginia because it impermissibly burdens a fundamental right. 
The circuit court overruled Palmer’s plea in bar and demurrer.  Regarding the plea in bar, 
it found that the applicability of Code § 56-49.01 “turns upon a definition borrowed from [11 
U.S.C. § 717a] rather than an implied definition suggested by its placement within the Code of 
Virginia.”  Regarding the demurrer, the circuit court noted that the “legal challenges to the 
validity of [statutes like Code § 56-49.01 across the country] on the basis that they [e]ffect a 
taking without just compensation have been consistently rejected.”  (quoting Charlottesville 
Division v. Dominion Transmission, Inc., 138 F.Supp.3d 673, 690 (W.D. Va. 2015)).  
Accordingly, it concluded that “[a] landowner has no constitutionally protected property right to 
exclude an authorized utility from entering his property for survey purposes.”  We granted 
Palmer this appeal. 
II. Analysis 
 
A. Applicability of Code § 56-49.01 to Foreign Corporations 
 
Palmer contends that ACP cannot exercise the entry-for-survey power of Code § 56-
49.01 for two reasons.  First, she argues that a “natural reading” of the statute “dictates that [it] 
3 
 
only applies to Virginia public service companies.”  Second, she argues that the statute must be 
interpreted to avoid conflicting with Article IX, § 5 of the Constitution of Virginia.  These 
arguments present “purely legal questions of statutory and constitutional interpretation which we 
review de novo.”  L.F. v. Breit, 285 Va. 163, 176, 736 S.E.2d 711, 718 (2013). 
1. Unambiguous Language of Code § 56-49.01 
 
In analyzing a statute, the Court’s primary objective is “to ascertain and give effect to 
legislative intent.”  Conger v. Barrett, 280 Va. 627, 630, 702 S.E.2d 117, 118 (2010) (quoting 
Turner v. Commonwealth, 226 Va. 456, 459, 309 S.E.2d 337, 338 (1983)).  “That intention is 
initially found in the words of the statute itself, and if those words are clear and unambiguous, 
we do not rely on rules of statutory construction.”  Crown Cent. Petroleum Corp. v. Hill, 254 Va. 
88, 91, 488 S.E.2d 345, 346 (1997). 
Code § 56-49.01 provides, in relevant part, that 
 
A. Any firm, corporation, company, or partnership, organized for the 
bona fide purpose of operating as a natural gas company as defined 
in 15 U.S.C. § 717a, as amended, may make such examinations, 
tests, hand auger borings, appraisals, and surveys for its proposed 
line or location of its works as are necessary (i) to satisfy any 
regulatory requirements and (ii) for the selection of the most 
advantageous location or route, . . . [and] may enter upon any 
property without the written permission of its owner . . . . 
 
On appeal, Palmer argues that Code § 56-49.01 only applies to domestic natural gas companies 
because it is located within Title 56 of the Virginia Code, which governs “Public Service 
Companies.”  She suggests that if the statute was intended to apply to “any” natural gas 
company, “it would have been placed in Title 13.1, which governs ‘[c]orporations’ generally.”   
This argument is not persuasive.  Code § 56-49.01 provides its entry-for-survey power to 
“[a]ny . . . corporation [or] company . . . organized for the bona fide purposes of operating as a 
natural gas company as defined in 15 U.S.C. § 717a.”  Id. (emphasis added).  For the purposes of 
4 
 
Title 56, the term “[c]orporation” or “company” includes not only corporations “created by acts 
of the General Assembly of Virginia, or under the general incorporation laws of this 
Commonwealth,” but also “all corporations . . . doing business therein.”  Code § 56-1 (emphases 
added).  Thus, both domestic corporations and foreign corporations that are “doing business” 
within the Commonwealth  – such as ACP – are included in the definition of “corporation” for 
the purposes of Title 56. 
Next, Code § 56-49.01 applies to “[a]ny” such “corporation” that fits within 15 U.S.C. § 
717a’s definition of a “natural gas company.”  That is, the corporation must be “engaged in the 
transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce, or the sale in interstate commerce of such 
gas for resale.”  15 U.S.C. § 717a(6); see also 15 U.S.C. § 717a(1).  Palmer does not contest that 
ACP fits within this definition.  Accordingly, by its plain language, Code § 56-49.01 applies to 
foreign natural gas companies as defined by 15 U.S.C. § 717a(6) that do business in Virginia, 
including ACP. 
2. Article IX, Section 5 of the Constitution of Virginia 
 
Palmer next argues that we must deny the entry-for-survey privilege to foreign 
corporations to avoid conflicting with Article IX, § 5 of the Constitution of Virginia.  This 
constitutional provision states, in relevant part, that “[n]o foreign corporation shall be authorized 
to carry on in this Commonwealth the business of, or to exercise any of the powers or functions 
of, a public service enterprise.”  Va. Const. art. IX, § 5.  We cannot consider this argument 
because Palmer neither presented it to the circuit court nor raised it in her opening brief on 
appeal. 
Rule 5:25 states that “[n]o ruling of the trial court . . . will be considered as a basis for 
reversal unless an objection was stated with reasonable certainty at the time of the ruling.”  This 
5 
 
rule “exists to protect the trial court from appeals based upon undisclosed grounds, to prevent the 
setting of traps on appeal, to enable the trial judge to rule intelligently, and to avoid unnecessary 
reversals and mistrials.”  Reid v. Boyle, 259 Va. 356, 372, 527 S.E.2d 137, 146 (2000) (quoting 
Fisher v. Commonwealth, 236 Va. 403, 414, 374 S.E.2d 46, 52 (1988)). 
Palmer admitted at oral argument that she failed to present her Article IX, § 5 argument 
to the circuit court.  As a result, there is no ruling on the issue, and we will not accept Palmer’s 
invitation to reverse the circuit court’s opinion based on this undisclosed ground.  McDonald v. 
Commonwealth, 274 Va. 249, 255, 645 S.E.2d 918, 921 (2007) (refusing to consider a facial 
invalidity challenge to Code § 18.2-361(A) because the appellant never raised such a claim in the 
circuit court); see also Jones v. Commonwealth, 293 Va. 29, 39 n.5, 795 S.E.2d 705, 710 n.5 
(2017) (The Court “will not consider an argument that differs from the specific argument 
presented to the trial court even if it relates to the same general issue.” (citing Floyd v. 
Commonwealth, 219 Va. 575, 584, 249 S.E.2d 171, 176 (1978))). 
Palmer also failed to raise the argument in her opening brief on appeal.  Rule 5:27 states 
that “[t]he opening brief of the appellant . . . must contain . . . [t]he standard of review, the 
argument, and the authorities relating to each assignment of error.”  Rule 5:27(d).  The failure to 
comply with this rule “results in waiver of the arguments the party failed to make.”  John Crane, 
Inc. v. Hardick, 283 Va. 358, 376, 722 S.E.2d 610, 620 (2012). 
Regarding her first assignment of error, Palmer’s opening brief argues, as discussed 
above, that the location of Code § 56-49.01 within the Code of Virginia prohibits foreign public 
service companies from utilizing its entry-for-survey power.  In the last four lines of her 
argument relating to the placement of the statute within the Code, she quotes an excerpt from 
Article IX, § 5 and immediately concludes that the trial court erred by ruling “otherwise.”  Later, 
6 
 
for the first time in the course of this litigation, she presents extensive argument related to Article 
IX, § 5 in her reply brief. 
At oral argument, Palmer’s counsel admitted that he “didn’t present [the argument in the 
opening brief] because [he] thought it was a silver bullet.”  He stated that he “referenced” the 
constitutional provision but “held back” the argument “to see what [ACP was] going to do with 
it” and then “went full blast in the reply [brief].”  He took the position that referencing Article 
IX, § 5 in the opening brief was sufficient to preserve the issue.  It is not. 
Rule 5:27 requires an argument, and merely referencing a provision is not an argument.  
Accordingly, the argument is waived.  John Crane, 283 Va. at 376, 722 S.E.2d at 620; see also 
Whitley v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 66, 79 n.2, 286 S.E.2d 162, 170 n.2 (1982) (“[W]e will not 
notice a non-jurisdictional question raised for the first time in a reply brief filed in this Court.”). 
B. Article I, § 11 of the Constitution of Virginia 
In her second assignment of error, Palmer contends that the trial court erred by overruling 
her demurrer because Code § 56-49.01 infringes upon her “fundamental right to private property 
in violation of Article I, § 11” of the Constitution of Virginia.  Palmer’s demurrer argued that 
Code § 56-49.01 violated Article I, § 11 by (1) authorizing “a taking or damaging of private 
property for private use,” (2) authorizing “a taking or damaging of private property without just 
compensation,” and (3) “impermissibly burden[ing] a fundamental right.”  However, her second 
assignment of error is restricted to the third claim of her demurrer.  In fact, she expressly stated 
in her reply brief that she is not making a “takings” argument on appeal.1 
                                                          
 
1 Palmer has thereby waived any argument relating to the trial court’s rulings on the first 
two contentions of her demurrer – namely, that Code § 56-49.01 effects “a taking or damaging of 
private property for private use” and authorizes “a taking or damaging . . . without just 
compensation.”  Therefore, this opinion does not address the relationship between Code § 56-
49.01 and the public use and just compensation requirements of the takings clause. 
7 
 
Palmer generally maintains that Article I, § 11 defines the right to private property as 
fundamental, and that Code § 56-49.01 unconstitutionally infringes upon her fundamental right 
to exclude ACP.  In addressing this argument, we noted that “[t]here is no stronger presumption 
known to the law than that which is made by the courts with respect to the constitutionality of an 
act of Legislature.”  Whitlock v. Hawkins, 105 Va. 242, 248, 53 S.E. 401, 403 (1906); In re 
Phillips, 265 Va. 81, 85, 574 S.E.2d 270, 272 (2003) (“[A]ll acts of the General Assembly are 
presumed to be constitutional.”). 
1. Right to Exclude 
In 2012, Article I, § 11 was amended to explicitly state that the right to private property is 
fundamental in Virginia.  2011 Acts ch. 757; 2012 Acts chs. 564, 684, 736, and 738.  Palmer 
correctly notes that “[t]he right to exclude others is generally ‘one of the most essential sticks in 
the bundle of rights that are commonly characterized as property.’”  Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto 
Co., 467 U.S. 986, 1011 (1984) (quoting Kaiser Aetna v. United States, 444 U.S. 164, 176 
(1979)).  Yet, the common law has long recognized that the right to exclude is not absolute.  See 
Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 85 (1949) (plurality opinion) (observing that “even the 
fundamental rights of the Bill of Rights are not absolute”). 
The common law privilege to enter private property for limited purposes is outlined in the 
American Law Institute’s first Restatement of Torts, published in 1934.  Restatement of Torts §§ 
191-211 (1934).  Comment c of § 211 explains that this privilege applies “where an employee of 
a public utility is . . . authorized to enter upon privately owned land for the purpose of making 
surveys preliminary to instituting a proceeding for taking by eminent domain.”  Id. at § 211 cmt. 
c. 
8 
 
Today, every state has codified the common law privilege of a body exercising eminent 
domain authority to enter private property to conduct preliminary surveys without trespass 
liability.2  Virginia statutory law has done so for 235 years.  In 1782, a law permitted authorized 
surveyors to enter private land to survey the location of public roads and made it unlawful for 
anyone to “stop, oppose, or hinder” them.  1782 Acts ch. 51, reprinted in 11 William Waller 
Hening, Statutes at Large 27-28 (1823).  The Code of 1819 gave a turnpike company “full power 
and authority to enter upon all lands and tenements through which they may judge it necessary to 
make said road; and to lay out the same according to their pleasure.”  2 Va. Rev. Code ch. 234, § 
7 (1819).  The Code of 1860 gave “internal improvement” companies the authority to “enter 
upon any lands for the purpose of examining the same and surveying and laying out such as may 
                                                          
 
2 Alabama, Ala. Code § 18-1A-50; Alaska, Alaska Stat. Ann. § 09.55.280; Arizona, Ariz. 
Rev. Stat. Ann. § 12-1115; Arkansas, Ark. Code Ann. § 18-15-1302; California, Cal. Civ. Proc. 
Code § 1245.010; Colorado, Colo. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§ 18-4-515 and 37-3-113; Connecticut, 
Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 48-13; Delaware, Del. Code Ann. tit. 2 § 704; Florida, Fla. Stat. Ann. § 
163.370; Georgia, Ga. Code Ann. § 22-3-86(c) and (d); Hawaii, Haw. Rev. Stat. § 101-8; Idaho, 
Idaho Code Ann. § 7-705; Illinois, 70 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 5/22.3; Indiana, Ind. Code Ann. § 32-
24-1-3; Iowa, Iowa Code Ann. § 314.9; Kansas, Kan. Stat. Ann. § 26-512; Kentucky, Ky. Rev. 
Stat. Ann. § 175B.050; Louisiana, La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 48:217; Maine, Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. tit. 
32 § 18231; Maryland, Md. Code Ann. Real Prop. § 12-111; Massachusetts, Mass. Gen. Laws 
Ann. ch. 164 § 72A; Michigan, Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 213.54; Minnesota, Minn. Stat. Ann. 
§ 117.041; Mississippi, Miss. Code Ann. § 11-27-39; Missouri, Mo. Ann. Stat. § 99.420; 
Montana, Mont. Code Ann. § 70-30-110; Nebraska, Neb. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 15-229; Nevada, 
Nev. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 37.050; New Hampshire, N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 371:2-a; New Jersey, 
N.J. Stat. Ann. § 20:3-16; New Mexico, N.M. Stat. Ann. § 42A-1-8; New York, N.Y. Em. Dom. 
Proc. Law § 404; North Carolina, N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 40A-11; North Dakota, N.D. Cent. 
Code Ann. § 32-15-06; Ohio, Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 163.03; Oklahoma, Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 11 
§ 22-114; Oregon, Or. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 35.220; Pennsylvania, 26 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 309; 
Rhode Island, R.I. Gen. Laws Ann. § 24-12-9; South Carolina, S.C. Code Ann. § 28-2-70; South 
Dakota, S.D. Codified Laws § 49-33-6; Tennessee, Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-16-121; Texas, Tex. 
Nat. Res. Code Ann. § 111.019; Utah, Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-506; Vermont, Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 
5, § 3518; Virginia, Code §§ 25.1-203, 56-49, and 56-49.01; Washington, Wash. Rev. Code Ann. 
§ 47.01-170; West Virginia, W.Va. Code Ann. § 54-1-3; Wisconsin, Wis. Stat. Ann. § 182.38; 
Wyoming, Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-26-506. 
9 
 
seem fit to any officer or agent authorized by it, provided no injury be done to the owner or 
possessor of land.”  Va. Code tit. 17, ch. 56, § 4 (1860). 
Most relevant to the present case, the Code of 1904 granted entry-for-survey authority to 
“[a]ny company” vested with eminent domain authority.  Code § 1105f(3) (1904) (authorizing 
any company with power to condemn lands to “enter upon any lands . . . for the purpose of 
examining the same, and surveying”).  Today, the Code contains three such statutes: Code §§ 56-
49, 56-49.01, and 25.1-203.  Code §§ 56-49 and 56-49.01 provide an entry-for-survey privilege 
specifically to “public service corporation[s]” and “natural gas compan[ies].”  Code § 25.1-
203(A) extends the same privilege to “any petitioner exercising” the power of eminent domain. 
In sum, Palmer’s right to exclude others is not absolute.  The common law has long 
recognized the privilege of an entity exercising eminent domain power to enter private property 
to conduct surveys.  This same privilege has a well-established historical pedigree in our 
statutory law.  Accordingly, Palmer’s right to exclude others from her property does not extend 
to ACP in the present case. 
2. 2012 Amendment to Article I, § 11 of the Constitution of Virginia 
Palmer does not rebut any of the above authorities.  Rather, she argues that the 2012 
amendment to Article I, § 11 of the Constitution of Virginia created a new constitutional right to 
exclude ACP from her property.  We disagree. 
The 2012 amendment to Article I, § 11 was “strongly influenced by the decision of the 
United States Supreme Court in the case of Kelo v. New London.”  2012 Va. Op. Att’y Gen. 11-
135, 2012 Va. AG LEXIS 3, at *8 (Jan. 26, 2012).  In Kelo, the United States Supreme Court 
held that it was a valid “public use” to condemn non-blighted private land and transfer it to a 
private developer “to promote economic development” – specifically noting that doing so would 
10 
 
create “in excess of 1,000 jobs” and “increase tax and other revenues.”  Kelo v. City of New 
London, 545 U.S. 469, 472, 484 (2005).  Nevertheless, the majority noted that “nothing in our 
opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings 
power,” and that “many States already impose ‘public use’ requirements that are stricter than the 
federal baseline.”  Id. at 489. 
The 2012 amendment to Article I, § 11 accepted this invitation to place further 
restrictions on the takings power.  For example, Article I, § 11 now provides, in direct 
contradiction to the rationale employed by the United States Supreme Court in Kelo, that “a 
taking or damaging of private property is not for public use if the primary use is for private gain, 
private benefit, private enterprise, increasing jobs, increasing tax revenue, or economic 
development, except for the elimination of a public nuisance existing on the property.”  Va. 
Const. art. I, § 11.  The amendment also expanded the definition of “just compensation” to be 
“no less than the value of the property taken, lost profits and lost access, and damages to the 
residue caused by the taking.”  Id. 
While the amendment also explicitly states that the right to “private property” is 
“fundamental,” nowhere does the amended language purport to modify existing property rights.  
It certainly does not abrogate the extensive common law privileges catalogued by the 
Restatement and recognized in Virginia statutory law.  In other words, the amendment did not 
add any sticks to Palmer’s bundle of property rights that did not already exist.  It primarily, in 
response to Kelo, limited the parameters within which eminent domain may be exercised to 
affect these rights and expanded the compensation to be paid. 
 
 
11 
 
III.  Conclusion 
The unambiguous language of Code § 56-49.01 establishes the General Assembly’s 
intent that the entry-for-survey privilege be available to foreign natural gas companies that do 
business within the Commonwealth.  Additionally, Palmer’s fundamental property rights do not 
include the right to exclude ACP in the present case.  Accordingly, we affirm the circuit court’s 
judgment. 
 
Affirmed. 
JUSTICE McCULLOUGH, concurring. 
I concur in the majority opinion.  I write separately, however, to address a premise that 
underpins the appellant’s argument, which is that the Due Process Clause of Article I § 11 of the 
Constitution of Virginia includes a “substantive” component.  Although our cases have assumed 
the existence of a substantive component to our Due Process Clause, see, e.g., Etheridge v. 
Medical Center Hospitals, 237 Va. 87, 97, 376 S.E.2d 525, 530 (1989), we have never 
undertaken the textual or historical inquiry necessary to determine whether, as a matter of 
original public meaning, our Due Process Clause contains a substantive component.  To the 
extent we have discussed substantive due process in any depth, it has always been in connection 
with case law from the United States Supreme Court and the Constitution of the United States.  
See Walton v. Commonwealth, 255 Va. 422, 427-28, 497 S.E.2d 869, 872-73 (1998); Etheridge, 
237 Va. at 97-98, 376 S.E.2d at 529-30; Duke v. County of Pulaski, 219 Va. 428, 437-38, 247 
S.E.2d 824, 829 (1978); Board of Supervisors v. State Milk Comm’n, 191 Va. 1, 8-9, 60 S.E.2d 
35, 39 (1950); Finney v. Hawkins, 189 Va. 878, 886, 54 S.E.2d 872, 876 (1949); Stickley v. 
Givens, 176 Va. 548, 560, 11 S.E.2d 631, 637 (1940). 
 
12 
First, as a textual matter, our Due Process Clause provides no hint that it contains a 
substantive component.  The Due Process Clause has been part of our Bill of Rights since 1902, 
and it states in relevant part “[t]hat no person shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or property 
without due process of law.”  Va. Const. art. I, § 11.  Its wording tracks the language of the Fifth 
Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment.  Properly understood, these clauses have a 
straightforward meaning:  that if the state wishes to deprive a person of his life, liberty, or 
property, it must provide “due process of law,” i.e., procedural due process, which ordinarily 
includes, among other things, notice, and the opportunity to be heard before an impartial tribunal.  
The Due Process Clause cannot fairly be read to include a substantive component that restrains 
arbitrary lawmaking.  From a textual perspective, “substantive” due process “is an oxymoron.”  
Steven G. Calabresi, Substantive Due Process after Gonzales v. Carhart, 106 Mich. L. Rev. 
1517, 1531 (2008).  See also John Hart Ely, Democracy and Distrust:  A Theory of Judicial 
Review 186 (1980) (“[S]ubstantive due process is a contradiction in terms.”). 
Second, nothing in the extensive constitutional debates that resulted in the adoption of the 
Constitution of Virginia of 1902 suggests that its framers intended to include a substantive 
component to this clause.  One would expect to find a vigorous debate on the point, had the 
drafters of this provision intended such a radical and counter-textual reading of the Due Process 
Clause.  That debate is nowhere to be found.  More recently, in 1969, the Report of the 
Commission on Constitutional Revision recommended the addition of the words “life” and 
“liberty” to the protections for which due process should extend.  There is no mention of 
“substantive” due process.  The Constitution of Virginia, Report of the Commission on 
Constitutional Revision 95-96 (1969).  It is therefore unlikely that the voting public had any 
 
13 
inkling that it was adopting a substantive component to due process when it ratified those drafts 
of the Constitution. 
Third, whatever interpretation the United States Supreme Court has adopted for the Due 
Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States 
does not bind us in determining the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Constitution of 
Virginia.  Just as it remains the duty of the United States Supreme Court to interpret the text of 
the Constitution of the United States, our duty as the highest court in Virginia is to reach our own 
conclusion with respect to the meaning of Virginia’s foundational charter of government. 
Of course, we would be wise to consult persuasive precedent from other courts, including 
the United States Supreme Court, when those courts have construed textually similar or identical 
clauses.  Substantive due process made its debut in the jurisprudence of the United States 
Supreme Court, infamously enough, in the Dred Scott case.  Although it did not receive pride of 
place, it was offered as a rationale for the court’s conclusion.  See Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 
U.S. 393, 450 (1857).  Following that decision, the concept of substantive due process lay 
dormant for a time, only to be revived during the Lochner1 era as a device to strike down, albeit 
unevenly, reforms aimed at ameliorating what were often dismal working conditions (as well as, 
it must be conceded, special interest legislation designed to squelch competition).  The Court 
ultimately disavowed this line of jurisprudence, see, e.g., United States v. Carolene Products 
Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152 (1938), but not the idea of substantive due process.  Having made its 
peace with economic legislation, shape-shifting substantive due process has now found new form 
as a device to invalidate a different kind of disfavored legislation, usually by slender majorities.  
                                                          
 
1 Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45, 53-54 (1905). 
 
14 
See Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003); Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___, 135 S. Ct. 
2584 (2015). 
The United States Supreme Court has struggled to develop a rationale that would justify 
relying on substantive due process to strike down laws enacted by the people’s elected 
representatives.  In Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 703 (1997), the Court attempted 
such a justification, holding that substantive due process protects fundamental rights “which are, 
objectively, deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.”  In short order, however, the 
Court proceeded to side-step this limiting principle.  See, e.g., Lawrence, 539 U.S. 558; 
Obergefell, 576 U.S. ___, 135 S. Ct. 2584. 
To summarize, then, the United States Supreme Court deployed substantive due process 
in Dred Scott, and came to regret it; relied on substantive due process anew in the Lochner era, 
and again came to regret it; and to the regret of a vocal minority of the Court, has once more 
deployed it in our time.  If the absence of any textual or historical support for the concept were 
not enough to persuade me that we should not embrace substantive due process as part of 
Virginia’s constitutional jurisprudence, a review of the United States Supreme Court’s 
jurisprudence convinces me that we ought to leave “substantive” due process and its shabby and 
disorganized baggage train across the Potomac. 
As Virginia’s Supreme Court, we must uphold the Constitution of Virginia and the 
individual rights it protects.  If, upon a careful inquiry, some of the clauses of our Declaration of 
Rights are found to offer more protection than the protections found in the Constitution of the 
United States, including the religious liberty and economic liberty rights devalued in modern 
 
15 
federal jurisprudence,2 we should do our duty and honor the original public meaning of those 
provisions.  Our exercise of the awesome but limited power of judicial review, however, should 
be undertaken without saddling the Constitution of Virginia with “substantive” due process. 
                                                          
 
2 See Va. Const. art. I, § 1 (listing “the means of acquiring and possessing property” as an 
“inherent right”); Va. Const. art. I, § 16 (“[A]ll men are equally entitled to the free exercise of 
religion, according to the dictates of conscience.”).