Being a citizen legislature means, by its very definition, that we don’t meet full time.  By extension, every now and an issue crops up mid-year which requires a special session just because of the circumstances of the subject, as opposed to a special session called because the Governor wants a specific subject addressed by the legislature.
 
The last special session we had that was called because of the circumstances of the subject was in 2004 - a clerical error from the regular session earlier that year erased a double negative reference to “blue laws” which meant many Virginia companies would not be able to operate on Sundays.

 And such a session has now been called by the Governor for August 19.  The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on June 25, 2009 in a case they heard regarding a person’s Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses.
 
If you were to be stopped by law enforcement for driving while intoxicated, and you submitted to blood test, the results of the blood test would be submitted via a sworn certificate that states what the technical results of the blood test were.
 
The U.S. Supreme Court, in their 5-4 decision, determined that submitting a sworn certificate did not allow the defendant his rights under the Sixth Amendment to confront the witnesses against him.   The U.S. Supreme Court has determined the technicians performing the tests must be present at the trial to submit the laboratory results in person, and not just by way of a sworn certificate.
 
The Governor has called a special session to address the changes that need to be made to Virginia’s Code to comply with this decision, as well as how the Commonwealth will allocate it’s limited resources to not only continue to have staff and money to perform the technical laboratory tests, but to also have enough technicians available to testify in court to present the results of these tests throughout the Commonwealth.
 
Further, there are administrative issues to be addressed that have to do with trial scheduling to ensure that not only will the limited number of technicians be available to testify at trials all over the Commonwealth, but that they will be available to do so in a timely manner to ensure a person’s right to a speedy trial.
 
There is a significant amount of work that needs to be done even before we get to our special session in three weeks – already we are looking at making changes to no less than four different title sections in our Code.
 
But this is a clear example of how even with a part-time legislature, you never know when you will be called to put in some overtime.