Lex Bar Rules - Bus Essay

Question 1

Under Dillon’s Rule, localities have only the powers that are:

Answer 1

(i) expressly granted by the General Assembly;
(ii) necessary or fairly implied by the powers that are expressly granted; or
(iii) essential and indispensable.

Question 2

Dillon’s Rule is a rule of strict construction, and any ambiguity must be resolved

Answer 2

against the local government.

Question 3

Under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, absent a statutory exception, meetings of public bodies conducting public business must

Answer 3

be open to the public.

Question 4

Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act explicitly does not allow

Answer 4

votes by telephone or electronic means where the members are not physically assembled.

Question 5

There is an exception to the FOIA’s “physically present” requirement of the meetings of public bodies if

Answer 5

(i) the Governor has declared a state of emergency; or
(ii) when a quorum is physically together but one member needs to participate electronically.

Question 6

Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act allows Virginia residents to obtain public records and requires that all public records be

Answer 6

open to inspection and copying by any citizens of the Commonwealth during the regular office hours of the records custodian.

Question 7

For the purposes of FOIA, “public records” are defined as

Answer 7

all writings and recordings of any type or nature, however stored, and regardless of physical form or characteristics, which are prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body.

Question 8

Upon receiving a request for public records, the records custodian has ___________ working days to respond.

Answer 8

five

Question 9

If the records custodian has a reasonable basis for doing so, it may respond that it is not practically possible to provide the requested records within five working days, in which case

Answer 9

the records must be provided within an additional seven working days.