[Posted Mar. 5, 2008]

Local Attorneys Petition Va. Assembly For Minority Judges

    The South Hampton Roads Bar Association (SHRBA) recently made three endorsements to the Virginia General Assembly for some judicial vacancies in courts in the area. According to Attorney W.T. Mason, who heads the group comprised of mainly African American lawyers in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, the group “is deeply concerned that over the years no minority lawyers have been appointed as judges in the Virginia Beach and Suffolk Circuit Courts.”
   “We urge the members of the General Assembly in their judicial selection process to include the appointment of well qualified minority and women lawyers as judges in Virginia,” he wrote in a press release.

   SHRBA made the following endorsements.
For the Circuit Court of Chesapeake, Virginia: HON. RUFUS A. BANKS, JR. (rated highly qualified); and TANYA LOMAX, ESQ., (rated qualified).

    For the Circuit Court of Norfolk, Virginia; BRUCE C. SAMS, ESQ., (rated qualified).

  And for the Circuit Court of Virginia Beach, Virginia:  CHESTER L. SMITH, ESQ., (rated qualified).
    Attorney Mason wrote “No one should be appointed a judge because of their race, sex, or political affiliation. By the same token, no one should be excluded from appointment to the bench because of their race, sex, or political affiliation.
“We urge the members of the General Assembly in their judicial selection process to include the appointment of well qualified minority and women lawyers as judges in Virginia.
    Attorney Mason said that part of the association’s mission is to address racial discrimination and injustice in the judicial system in the Hampton Roads’ communities. He noted that while no African Americans have been appointed as judges in the Virginia Beach and Suffolk Circuit Courts that has not been true for the Circuit Courts in Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth. 

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