In Part 1 of this series, we showed that Virginia’s Declaration of Rights came before the U.S. Bill of Rights — and largely inspired it. George Mason wrote it in 1776. James Madison carried its ideas to Philadelphia and into the First Amendment. The Constitution didn’t give Virginia its rights. Virginia gave the Constitution its foundation.
But here is what most people don’t know — including most Virginia Christians: the story doesn’t stop there.
Virginia’s Constitution doesn’t just mirror the federal one. In several critical areas, it goes further. Your rights as a Virginia citizen are protected twice — once by the federal Constitution, and again by your state Constitution, which in some places offers stronger protection than Washington ever has.
Right now, in the 2026 legislative session, both layers are under attack at the same time. Understanding what you have — before it changes — starts here.
Two Shields, Not One
Most Americans think of constitutional rights as something the federal government gives them. That’s understandable — the federal Bill of Rights gets all the attention in school. But America’s constitutional system was designed with two layers of protection on purpose.
The federal Constitution sets a floor — a minimum standard of rights that no government, state or federal, can go below. But states are free to build higher. They can give their citizens more protection than the federal floor requires. Many do. Virginia does.
Think of it this way. The federal Constitution is the foundation of the house. Virginia’s Constitution is the house itself — built on that foundation but bigger, more detailed, and more specific to the people who live in it.
When a law passed in Richmond threatens your rights, it has to clear both walls. If it violates Virginia’s Constitution, it falls — even if the federal courts would allow it. That double protection is not an accident. It is the genius of American federalism, and it matters enormously for what is happening in Virginia right now.
“The architecture of judicial power implicit in American federalism gives the Supreme Court of Virginia the last word on the meaning of the Constitution of Virginia.” — Virginia Supreme Court, 2023
Religious Liberty: Virginia’s Version Is Stronger
Start with the most important difference for Virginia Christians — religious liberty.
The First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom is exactly sixteen words: “Congress shall make no law… prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Virginia’s religious liberty guarantee — Article I, Section 16 — is 238 words long. It is one of the oldest and most detailed state-level religious liberty protections still in force anywhere in America. James Madison helped write it at age 25, insisting that religious liberty is not a favor from government but a natural right given by God. That language has lived in Virginia’s Constitution for 250 years.
KEY DIFFERENCE: The First Amendment stops the government from passing laws against religion. Virginia’s Article I, Section 16 goes further — it requires government to allow religious exercise and to grant exemptions unless beliefs break out into overt acts against peace and good order.
In 2023, this difference became more than a history lesson. A French teacher named Peter Vlaming was fired by the West Point School Board for declining to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns. His reason was sincere Christian conviction — he believed God made human beings male and female, and he could not in good conscience speak words that denied that reality.
The school argued it was enforcing a neutral policy. Under federal First Amendment law, that argument likely would have won — the Supreme Court’s current standard says a neutral law of general application can burden religious practice without violating the Constitution.
But Vlaming sued under Virginia’s Constitution, not the federal one. And the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in his favor — reviving his claims under the state Constitution and sending the case back for further proceedings.
The court found that Virginia’s Article I, Section 16 requires government to grant religious exemptions to sincere believers — unless their beliefs break out into overt acts against peace and good order. Declining to use a pronoun is not an overt act against peace. The school board had no grounds to fire him.
That ruling matters for every Christian teacher, counselor, nurse, and business owner in Virginia. It means that when the state comes after your faith, you have a constitutional shield that goes beyond what the federal courts will give you.
It also means that the current legislative session’s attacks on parental rights and Christian conscience — driven by transgender ideology and backed by Governor Spanberger’s executive orders — face a higher constitutional wall in Virginia than they would in many other states.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” — 2 Corinthians 3:17
The Right to Bear Arms: A Double Layer of Protection
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has been debated, litigated, and attacked for decades. But Virginia gun owners have something most Americans don’t — a second constitutional guarantee that predates the federal one by fifteen years.
Virginia’s Article I, Section 13 was first written in 1776. The Second Amendment wasn’t ratified until 1791. Here is how the two compare:
Virginia Constitution — Article I, Section 13 (1776/1971):
“That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power.”
Second Amendment — U.S. Constitution (1791):
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Notice what Virginia’s version adds that the federal one doesn’t. It defines the militia as “the body of the people” — ordinary citizens, not a government-controlled military force. It explicitly warns against standing armies in peacetime. And it insists that the military must always answer to civilian authority.
Virginia’s founders weren’t just protecting the right to own a gun. They were describing a philosophy of liberty — a vision of an armed citizenry as the ultimate check on government overreach.
WHY THIS MATTERS NOW: The gun bills moving through Richmond in 2026 — SB749, HB217, HB919, and the rest of the package — must clear both the federal Second Amendment and Virginia’s Article I, Section 13. Virginia gun owners have two constitutional shields. The Democrats pushing these bills are attacking both at once.
The Virginia Supreme Court has interpreted Article I, Section 13 to be at least as protective as the Second Amendment in prior cases — meaning at minimum, whatever the federal courts protect, Virginia protects too. And as we saw with religious liberty in Vlaming, Virginia courts are increasingly willing to interpret state constitutional protections independently of — and more broadly than — their federal counterparts.
Rights Virginia Has That the Federal Constitution Doesn’t Mention
Beyond the areas where Virginia goes further than the federal Constitution, there are rights in Virginia’s founding document that don’t appear in the federal Bill of Rights at all. These are protections unique to Virginia citizens.
The Right to Hunt, Fish, and Harvest Game
In 2000, Virginia voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution explicitly protecting the right to hunt, fish, and harvest game. Article I, Section 11(A) reads: “The people have a right to hunt, fish, and harvest game, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the General Assembly may prescribe by general law.”
There is nothing like this in the federal Constitution. This right exists only because Virginia put it there. For the hundreds of thousands of Virginia families who hunt and fish as a way of life — and as an expression of God’s provision and stewardship — this is a constitutionally protected freedom.
Education as a Constitutional Duty
Virginia’s 1971 Constitution includes a provision on public education drawn directly from Thomas Jefferson’s writings. Article VIII declares it the Commonwealth’s duty to provide “an effective system of free public elementary and secondary schools throughout the Commonwealth.”
The federal Constitution says nothing about education. It is entirely a state matter. This means that battles over what Virginia’s children are taught — about gender, about history, about the nature of human beings — are fought on Virginia’s constitutional ground, not Washington’s. Parents who push back against what is being taught in their children’s schools are standing on this provision.
Environmental Stewardship
Article XI of Virginia’s Constitution makes it state policy to protect natural resources, public lands, and historical sites. This reflects a stewardship ethic that Christians can recognize — we are called to care for God’s creation. It has no direct federal counterpart.
The Amendment Problem: Why November 2026 Is Different
Here is the most urgent constitutional lesson of this entire series.
Virginia’s Constitution can be changed far more easily than the federal one. The federal amendment process is nearly impossible by design — it requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, then ratification by three-fourths of all fifty states. Only twenty-seven amendments have ever been ratified in 235 years.
Virginia only requires a simple majority of the General Assembly in two back-to-back sessions, followed by a statewide voter referendum. In the current political environment — with Democrats holding the governorship and both chambers — they can put anything they want on the November 2026 ballot.
They already have. HJ1, the so-called Reproductive Freedom Amendment, and HJ3, which repeals Virginia’s constitutional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, were both signed by Governor Spanberger on February 6, 2026. They go to Virginia voters this November.
If voters ratify HJ1, abortion becomes a constitutional right in Virginia — protected by a strict-scrutiny standard (compelling interest, least restrictive means). That is the highest bar courts apply. It is the same standard that has struck down parental consent laws, waiting periods, and gestational limits in every other state that has adopted it. And it would be written into the same document that George Mason wrote, the same document that gave James Madison the language for the Bill of Rights, the same document built on the conviction that rights come from God.
That is not a policy change. That is a constitutional transformation. And unlike a law passed by the legislature, a constitutional amendment cannot be reversed by the next governor or the next General Assembly. It takes another amendment — another two legislative sessions and another voter referendum — to undo it.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The same easy amendment process that Virginia’s founders used to build a constitution of God-given rights is now being used to write the opposite into that same document. What voters do in November 2026 will shape Virginia’s constitutional foundation for a generation.
“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” — Proverbs 14:34
What You Can Do Today
- Share Part 1 and Part 2 with your Sunday School class or small group. Most Virginia Christians have never thought about their state’s Constitution. These articles give them a foundation.
- When someone asks you about the November ballot measures, you now have the answer: HJ1 and HJ3 are not laws. They are constitutional amendments. The difference matters enormously.
- Ask your pastor to address the November ballot from the pulpit — not as a partisan matter, but as a constitutional and biblical one. We will have resources for pastors in Part 3.
- Read Article I of Virginia’s Constitution at law.lis.virginia.gov/constitution. It takes twenty minutes. It is worth every minute.
Coming in Part 3: “Why the November Ballot Matters More Than Most Elections” — what HJ1’s “strict scrutiny” standard actually means in plain English, what it has already done in other states, and what every Virginia Christian voter needs to understand before stepping into the voting booth.
