Virginia
Virginia judge uses a slavery law to rule frozen embryos are property

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Frozen human embryos can legally be thought of property, or “chattel,” a Virginia decide has dominated, basing his resolution partly on a Nineteenth-century legislation governing the therapy of slaves.
The preliminary opinion by Fairfax County Circuit Court docket Decide Richard Gardiner – delivered in a long-running dispute between a divorced husband and spouse – is being criticized by some for wrongly and unnecessarily delving right into a time in Virginia historical past when it was legally permissible to personal human beings.
“It is repulsive and it is morally repugnant,” stated Susan Crockin, a lawyer and scholar at Georgetown College’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an knowledgeable in reproductive know-how legislation.
Solomon Ashby, president of the Outdated Dominion Bar Affiliation, knowledgeable group made up primarily of African American legal professionals, known as Gardiner’s ruling troubling.
Matthew Barakat / AP
“I wish to suppose that the bench and the bar could be looking for extra trendy precedent,” he stated.
Gardiner didn’t return a name to his chambers Wednesday. His resolution, issued final month, just isn’t remaining: He has not but dominated on different arguments within the case involving Honeyhline and Jason Heidemann, a divorced couple preventing over two frozen embryos that stay in storage.
Honeyhline Heidemann, 45, needs to make use of the embryos. Jason Heidemann objects.
Initially, Gardiner sided with Jason Heidemann. The legislation on the coronary heart of the case governs methods to divide “items and chattels.” The decide dominated that as a result of embryos couldn’t be purchased or offered, they could not be thought of as such and due to this fact Honeyhline Heidemann had no recourse beneath that legislation to say custody of them.
However after the ex-wife’s lawyer, Adam Kronfeld, requested the decide to rethink, Gardiner carried out a deep dive into the historical past of the legislation. He discovered that earlier than the Civil Conflict, it additionally utilized to slaves. The decide then researched previous rulings that ruled custody disputes involving slaves, and stated he discovered parallels that compelled him to rethink whether or not the legislation ought to apply to embryos.
In a separate half of his opinion, Gardiner additionally stated he erred when he initially concluded that human embryos can’t be offered.
“As there isn’t any prohibition on the sale of human embryos, they might be valued and offered, and thus could also be thought of ‘items or chattels,’” he wrote.
Crockin stated she’s not conscious of every other decide within the U.S. who has concluded that human embryos could be purchased and offered. She stated the pattern, if something, has been to acknowledge that embryos should be handled in a extra nuanced approach than as mere property.
Ashby stated he was baffled that Gardiner felt a have to delve into slavery to reply a query about embryos, even when Virginia case legislation is skinny on methods to deal with embryo custody questions.
“Hopefully, the jurisprudence will advance within the commonwealth of Virginia such that … we are going to not see slave codes” cited to justify authorized rulings, he stated.
Neither of the Heidemanns’ legal professionals ever raised the slavery difficulty. They did elevate different arguments in assist of their circumstances, nonetheless.
Jason Heidemann’s legal professionals stated permitting his ex-wife to implant the embryos they created after they had been married “would pressure Mr. Heidemann to procreate in opposition to his needs and due to this fact violate his constitutional proper to procreational autonomy.”
Honeyhline Heidemann’s lawyer, Kronfeld, argued that Honeyhline’s proper to the embryos outweighs her ex-husband’s objections, partly as a result of he would don’t have any authorized obligations to be their guardian and partly as a result of she has no different choices to conceive organic youngsters after present process most cancers therapies that made her infertile.
Kronfeld additionally argued that the preliminary separation settlement the couple signed in 2018 already handled the embryos as property after they concurred — beneath a subheading titled “Division of Private Property” — that the embryos would stay in cryogenic storage till a court docket ordered in any other case.
Gardiner has not but dominated on the argument over Jason Heidemann’s procreational autonomy.

Virginia
New Virginia driving law targets reckless driving with in-car technology

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – Tammy Guido McGee knows the pain reckless drivers can inflict. She and her loved ones have felt it themselves, after losing her son Conner in a reckless driving accident when he was still a young teen.
Through the loss, she has found herself taking an active seat in driving legislation going through the General Assembly. One bill just got a signature from Governor Glenn Youngkin, making Virginia the first in the country to pass such a law.
HB2096, going into effect July 2026, allows judges to order an Intelligent Speed Assistance device to be installed in convicted reckless drivers’ vehicles. The device can physically stop a driver from exceeding the listed speed limit.
“The need for this bill is urgent,” Guido McGee said. “It really is reckless driving continues to claim lives and cause irreparable harm across the country.”
For Guido McGee, this is the game changer she, through Families for Safe Streets, has been advocating for.
“I mean, my baby is not coming back. We made history this last week here with Governor Youngkin, putting this bill into law, and it’s crucial,” Guido McGee said. “It’s a common sense piece of legislation.”
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Copyright 2025 WVIR. All rights reserved.
Virginia
Updated List of Virginia’s 35 NCAA Team National Championships

Virginia women’s swim & dive won its fifth-consecutive national title last weekend, claiming the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championship in Federal Way, Washington. The Cavaliers won 10 of the 21 event titles, including four of the five relays, and finished with 544 total points in the final team standings, 127 points ahead of second-place Stanford.
UVA broke six NCAA records and five swimmers won individual NCAA titles, headlined by Gretchen Walsh, who won three individual titles and swam as part of four title-winning relay teams. She was named the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division I Women’s Swimmer of the Year for the second season in a row and finished her collegiate career with nine individual event titles and a perfect 16/16 on relay titles. Her older sister, Alex Walsh, won one individual title and three relay titles and finished her career with nine individual titles as well as 14 relay titles. Claire Curzan won two NCAA titles and four relay titles, Anna Moesch won three relay titles, and Maxine Parker won two relay titles.
UVA head coach Todd DeSorbo was named the CSCAA Swim Coach of the Year for the fifth consecutive season. He became the fastest first-time head coach to win five swimming & diving championships, accomplishing the feat in his first seven tries. DeSorbo is tied for third-most NCAA championships among active head coaches.
Virginia joined Texas (1984-1988) and Stanford (1992-1996) as the only programs to win five straight national titles in women’s swimming & diving. This is the first time that any UVA sports team has won five NCAA national titles in a row. UVA men’s soccer won four NCAA championships in a row from 1991 to 1994.
With this title, University of Virginia sports teams have now won 35 NCAA team national championships. Here’s the updated list:
Virginia: 35 NCAA Team National Championships
1938: Boxing
1972: Men’s Lacrosse
1981: Women’s Cross Country
1982: Women’s Cross Country
1989: Men’s Soccer
1991: Men’s Soccer
1991: Women’s Lacrosse
1992: Men’s Soccer
1993: Men’s Soccer
1993: Women’s Lacrosse
1994: Men’s Soccer
1999: Men’s Lacrosse
2003: Men’s Lacrosse
2004: Women’s Lacrosse
2006: Men’s Lacrosse
2009: Men’s Soccer
2010: Women’s Rowing
2011: Men’s Lacrosse
2012: Women’s Rowing
2013: Men’s Tennis
2014: Men’s Soccer
2015: Baseball
2015: Men’s Tennis
2016: Men’s Tennis
2017: Men’s Tennis
2019: Men’s Basketball
2019: Men’s Lacrosse
2021: Women’s Swimming & Diving
2021: Men’s Lacrosse
2022: Women’s Swimming & Diving
2022: Men’s Tennis
2023: Women’s Swimming & Diving
2023: Men’s Tennis
2024: Women’s Swimming & Diving
2025: Women’s Swimming & Diving
Virginia is tied with Oregon for 15th-most NCAA team national championships among Division I schools. With Stanford and Cal joining the Atlantic Coast Conference, UVA is now fourth for most NCAA titles in the ACC, trailing Cal (43), North Carolina (51), and Stanford (135), but the Cavaliers have by far the most NCAA titles of any school in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Read our coverage of each night of the 2025 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships at the links below:
Virginia Wins Fifth NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship in a Row
Gretchen Walsh Swims Sub 47-Second Fly, UVA Swim Wins Four More NCAA Titles
Gretchen Walsh Leads UVA Swim to Two Titles on Thursday at NCAA Championships
Virginia Swim Shatters 200 Medley Relay Record on Opening Night of NCAAs
Virginia
Five takeaways from Virginia lacrosse’s 12-10 loss to No. 8 Syracuse

The Virginia Cavaliers’ three turnovers during the last 4:26 against the No. 8 Syracuse Orange crushed the Wahoos’ chances of finishing an otherwise encouraging performance in their ACC opener on Saturday. The storied rivalry was littered with quick ball movement and stellar goalie play as Virginia and Syracuse combined for nearly 100 shots and 33 saves.
Virginia sophomore attackman McCabe Millon led the game with six points, off three goals and three assists, while senior attackmen Owen Hiltz led Syracuse with three goals and an assist.
Here are five takeaways from Virginia’s 12-10 loss:
UVA’s fast start breeds life
After freshman defender Luke Hublitz forced a turnover on Syracuse’s first possession, the ‘Hoos rattled off five shots before midfielder Johnny Hackett buried the sixth. Virginia continued to pester goalie Jimmy McCool throughout the entire first quarter, finishing it with 19 shots, 10 of which were on cage. Syracuse had just nine shots in the first quarter as the Orange fell behind 5-1.
Sophomore attackman Truitt Sunderland found twine twice, with his second goal being assisted by junior midfielder Charles Balsamo for just his third point of the season. Despite not finishing the game with an assist, Hackett was able to consistently get his hands free against short stick matchups and finished with two goals.
“I actually turned to [offensive coordinator] Kevin [Cassese] and at one point I thought we were going to try to possess a little bit more and not take shots every 12 seconds, but these are good shots,” head coach Lars Tiffany said. “So we were just more aggressive, and we were in attack mode, and Kevin was able to manipulate their slide schemes a little bit and got us in some openings.”
Virginia held its own at the faceoff stripe
Despite Syracuse’s sophomore FOGO John Mullen ranking first in the country in faceoff percentage among FOGO’s with at least 200 faceoffs taken, the ‘Hoos held their own against him on Saturday. Virginia finished the game with a 16-9 advantage.
“He has really fast hands,” Andrew Greenspan said of Mullen. “He likes to get it in and out really fast. He does it at a really high level. So we tried to muck it up in that sense as much as we can. But he’s a great faceoff guy.”
The ‘Hoos had a considerable amount of help from the officials on the X as Syracuse was called for five violations, while Virginia stayed clean at the X. The ‘Hoos beat Syracuse 6-5 at the X in the first half before dominating in the second, winning nine of the second half’s first 11 faceoffs.
Senior FOGO Anthony Ghobriel, who’s missed Virginia’s previous two games due to an injury, suited up for Saturday’s game before being limited after taking a hit in the first quarter. Sophomore Andrew Greenspan took a season-high 18 faceoffs and won 12 of them, including during a crucial moment with 2:10 remaining in regulation.
Syracuse’s second half start plagued the ‘Hoos
Syracuse started the second half almost identically to Virginia’s first half, scoring four consecutive goals within the first seven minutes. Junior midfielder Michael Leo scored three of Syracuse’s first four goals of the half.
“He was able to finish off what other guys were starting,” Tiffany said of Leo. “[Sam] English is such a handful, the fastest guy on the field — you don’t have six poles so you’re trying to figure out who you’re going to short. Leo even against a pole … was just blowing by us a couple times.”
Tiffany added that Syracuse forced Virginia’s defense to slide more than he wanted during the Orange’s four goal run, which led to Leo’s step down looks.
“Big difference when you give a division 1 shooter like him the ball hands free, time and room at 10 yards, versus on the run, sweeping,” Tiffany said. “So, they got us rotating there and on the other end… just give them credit [when] they fell into a zone.”
Millon stopped the Orange’s run during the middle of the game with consecutive goals, but that lopsided portion of the matchup hindered the ‘Hoos down the stretch. Sophomore attackman Payton Anderson started his first game of the season on Saturday in relief of Trey Deere, who had scored a combined eight goals in his last two games.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Anderson proved to be a tough matchup for the ‘Hoos and finished the game with two goals.
John Schroter dominated Joey Spallina
While he didn’t finish with a caused turnover or ground ball, junior defender John Schroter continued to show his prowess as one of the most elite defenders in the country on Saturday.
For the second year in a row, John Schroter shut down former No. 1 overall recruit Joey Spallina — as he finished with just one assist and zero goals. Spallina entered Saturday’s game second in assists in the country.
“That’s King Kong, Godzilla contact in the corner right there at the GLE,” Tiffany said. “Talk about two big guys initiating contact and when Spallina did get free, Matt Nunes was able to bail John Schroter out. But it’s a great matchup between those two. They battled in high school and in club games, and now we’re seeing that battle again.”
Tiffany added that he wanted all of the Cavaliers’ adjacent defenders to shut off their matchups while Schroter was engaged with Spallina, suggesting Spallina’s ability to pass but also Schroter’s coverage capability.
Schroter will likely have his hands full with another elite matchup next week against sophomore attackman Owen Duffy — the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year.
Virginia’s turnovers came at the wrong time
In a matchup that had no shortage of advanced stick work and complicated offensive and defensive strategy, the simple things plagued Virginia. The ‘Hoos turned the ball over four times during the fourth quarter compared to Syracuse’s zero. Syracuse finished the game with an 8-13 edge in the turnover battle, while Virginia caused just five turnovers to the Orange’s 10.
After Syracuse tied the game at 10 with 7:15 left, senior Virginia goalie Matthew Nunes stopped three shots during an over five minute scoring drought for both sides. However, the ‘Hoos had two costly turnovers within two minutes of each other, which led to Hiltz’ go-ahead goal with 2:10 remaining.
Virginia had an opportunity to tie the game after a faceoff win by Greenspan, but Syracuse’s zone defense stifled the ‘Hoos and Millon turned the ball over with 1:09 remaining. Syracuse outshot Virginia 17-5 in the fourth quarter with nine of the Orange’s shots being on cage.
“Give them credit,” Tiffany said, “we swung the ball to the left side, got it over to the right side, and, ‘Oh, he’s covered, how’d they do that.’ They rotated really well in our last minute [six versus six] possession.”
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