Evening star., 1952-11-21
Green Hits Move
Open Politics
lou. ). Workers
Arlington Attorney
Asks Legislature and
Bottle to Block Plan
By Alex R. Preston

Oy AlSA n. TIeStOn
AS members of the Virginia
General Assembly prepared te
meet in special session next
month, Attorney John Locke
Green of Arlington today moved
to head off the enactment of leg
islation which would give Federal
employees the right to serve ir
State and local Offices.
In letters to Gov. Battle ano
each member of the General AS
sembly, Mr.. Green declared:
ut seems to me. as the court
said, the policy prohibiting per-
sons from serving two govern
ments is more important today
than when the statute was first
enacted in 1778."
The Virginia Supreme Court in
upheld the 165-year-
old Virginia law prohibiting Fed
eral employees from holding State
and local offices. At the same
time the court ruled unconstitu-
tional an amendment to this law
designed to exempt Arlington
Alexandria and Fairfax from. the
prohibition.
Reapp0rtiOnment Scheduled.
Certainly" Mr.. Green wrote
"the people of SO counties or the
delegates to the General Assem-
bly, from those SO counties are
not going to junk nor throw into
discard well-founded law passed
upon sound policy just to &C
commodate some few thousand
people in the Northern end of the
State"
Gov. Battle has called the Legis-
lature into special session De-
cember 2 to reapportion the State
Senate and House of Delegates
legislative districts to conform
with population changes during
the last 10 years. The General
Assembly tackled the problem in
its regular session earlier this
year but failed to agree on the
politically dynamite-laden issue.
If custom is followed, the legis-
lators also will consider certain
emergency measures-such as
those introduced by consent OF
all or most of the membership
OF the House and Senate.
Fenwick May Lead Fight.
Arlington's delegation - State
Senator Charles r. Fenwick and
Delegates j. Maynard Magruder
and George Danlm-as well ,as
State Senator John A. K. Dono-
van of Fairfax and Alexandria
have indicated they will attemgs
to give Federal workers the right
to serve in State and local Offices
oy legislation at the special ses-
sion.
$50 far as the political aspect /.
concerned" Mr.. Green told Gov
Battle, "the last election, to wi,
November 4. 1852, showed that thu
persons who would amend this act
were defeated at the polls b,
almost 2 to l."
This apparently referred to the
non-partfsan candidates for the
Arlington County Board, all o1
whom were defeated. Since the
election. however, the board went
on record as favoring law which
the legislative delegation plans te
sponsor.
Litigation Now Pending.
The Arlington delegation spon.
sored a bin earlier this year which
sought to remove certain objec.
tionable features of the measure
which the Supreme Court later
ruled on.
But at htat time Mr.. Greer
already had instituted his suit
against Alan L. Dean, a Fedora,
employe member of sthe County
Board. The Legislature refused
to consider the bill in line with
its policy Of refraining from pass.
ing laws which might have ar
effect on pending litigation.
With this in mind, Mr.. Greer
reminded the Governor and Gen.
eral Assembly that litigation now
is pending on the same subject
He has filed suit to remove three
members OF the Arlington Schoo
Board who are Federal en,nloveS