Sundays-Off Law Got By Many Officials

The next day, it was forwarded to the attorney general's office, along with a form titled "Recommendations to the Governor."

There, lawyers checked three boxes indicating "No conflict with existing law," "No Virginia constitutional conflict" and "No federal constitutional conflict." They made no suggested amendments or comments. It was signed by Carla Collins, an assistant attorney general; Frank S. Ferguson, a special counsel in the attorney general's office; and Christopher R. Nolan, chief counsel to Kilgore.

"Ours is a legal analysis of the bill," said Tucker Martin, a spokesman for Kilgore. "It did not conflict with any law and therefore it did pass legal muster."

After Kilgore's office, the bill was reviewed by Warner's aides, who uniformly recommended that the governor sign it.

The "Policy Office Bill Review Form" provided a brief summary of the bill, saying that it repealed the blue laws concerning businesses that must be closed on Sunday. The summary did not mention that the bill also repealed exemptions to the law granting employees the right to demand a weekend day off.

Secretary of Commerce and Trade Michael J. Schewel checked the box marked "Sign," as did Steven Gould, a policy analyst; Robert Blue, the governor's chief counsel and policy director; and William Leighty, the governor's chief of staff. "This is exactly why we do lengthy bill reviews," Qualls said, "so it's unfortunate that so many people missed the connection here."

That connection wasn't made until late in June, when Buddy Omohundro, a lawyer for McGuire Woods who is just a few years out of law school, was contacted by a client with a routine question: Was their business required to give people a day off on the weekends?

As Omohundro examined the legislature's actions, he realized that the answer probably was "yes."

"As I kept looking at it and thinking about it . . . I kept going through different scenarios in my head about the impact this could have," he said. "This was really a learning experience into how things work and how things can slip by."