ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996                 TAG: 9604230034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 

LEGISLATORS IMMUNITY: IT'S BROKE, SO FIX IT

A CONSTITUTIONAL crisis? According to Del. Robert Nelms, R-Suffolk, that's what it was - "it" being the indecent-exposure charge lodged against Nelms, during this year's General Assembly session, after he was stopped by Richmond police in a city park known as a meeting place for gays. The delegate, who says he was only relieving himself, successfully invoked Virginia's antiquated legislative-immunity law to have the charge thrown out of court.

That incident, coupled with a House of Delegates clerk's failed attempt to beat a drunken-driving charge by citing legislative immunity, caused no crisis - constitutional or otherwise. But the General Assembly is embarrassed, as well it should be, that the immunity provisions could be abused so brazenly.

``This feeds the public perception that legislators think they're above the law,'' says Del. Dick Cranwell of Vinton. He's right.

Some legislators are now pushing to repeal the immunity for lawmakers. Others say it will suffice to tighten it up - to make it clear, for example, that legislators are immune only from physical arrest during General Assembly sessions, and not from being charged with a crime.

We'll leave that to the constitutional experts (like Nelms?). But at the very least:

* The immunity extended to lawmakers' aides and General Assembly paper-pushers should be scrapped. It makes no more sense than immunizing employees of snack bars in state-government buildings.

* The provision extending legislative immunity for 15 days before and after legislative sessions should be dumped. This is a vestige of the horse-and-buggy era when it might take that long to travel to and from Richmond.

The original point of the law was to prevent colonial governors from using the long arm of the law to stop legislative opposition by arresting opposition legislators on trumped-up charges. If anyone seriously thinks that's still a danger, pass a measure to penalize it.

While they're at it, you don't suppose they could pass a law to deflate the egos of legislators who confuse personal embarrassment with constitutional crisis?

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