Will "Dillon's Rule" Be Used to Erode LGBT Rights in Virginia?

I did a post earlier today on the withdrawal, based on the opinion of Christianist Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, of a proposed Commonwealth of Virginia regulatory change that would have allow government employees to add same-sex partners to their state health benefits. I have taken a bit of a beating by some bloggers and activists for calling Virginia's new Governor, Bob McDonnell by the nickname "Taliban Bob." The reality is that I did not give McDonnell the nickname which, in fact was first bestowed upon McDonnell by the Newport News based Daily Press back during the "lynching" of Circuit Court Judge Verbena Askew who was not reappointed to the bench in essence because she was rumored to be a lesbian. The "Taliban Bob" nickname was soon thereafter used by Joel Rubin, a local PBS news commentator. My use of the nickname was merely a repetition of a term coined some years back but, in my view, still applicable.
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Putting aside the issue of comparing Governor McDonnell to the Taliban is the bigger question as to whether or not this action by Cuccinelli - which was approved by McDonnell - is the harbinger of a larger effort to use the "Dillon's Rule" analysis utilized by Cuccinelli to target municipal ordinances and and employment policies that afford employment protection or more to LGBT citizens. Virginia is a state that follows the so-called Dillon's Rule. The National League of Cities describes Dillon's Rule: as follows:
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One court decision, referred to as "Dillon's Rule" has been applied to municipal powers in many states. Dillon's Rule is derived from written decision by Judge John F. Dillon of Iowa in 1868. It is a cornerstone of American municipal law. It maintains that a political subdivision of a state is connected to the state as a child is connected to a parent. Dillon's Rule is used in interpreting state law when there is a question of whether or not a local government has a certain power. Dillon's Rule narrowly defines the power of local governments.
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The first part of Dillon's Rule states that local governments have only three types of powers:
•those granted in express words,
•those necessarily or fairly implied in or incident to the powers expressly granted, and
•those essential to the declared objects and purposes of the corporation, not simply convenient, but indispensable.
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The second part of Dillon's Rule states that if there is any reasonable doubt whether a power has been conferred on a local government, then the power has NOT been conferred. This is the rule of strict construction of local government powers.
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Stated more simply, Dillon's Rule means that if a particular power has not been delegated to cities or counties, then they have no power to adopt ordinances and policies on that topic. While Attorney General, McDonnell using a similar analysis challenged the authority of former Governor Tim Kaine to sign Executive Order 1 (2006) which purported to add sexual orientation discrimination to the categories banned in the employment of state employees. In the case of Michael Moore v. Virginia Museum of Natural History now pending before the Supreme Court of Virginia, McDonnell argued that neither the Virginia Constitution nor the Virginia General Assembly have granted equal protections rights to individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and that, therefore, the Governor cannot grant such rights by way of Executive Order. Taken to a different level vis-a-vis Virginia municipalities that have adopted ordinances and employment non-discrimination policies that recognize sexual orientation as a class, the McDonnell/Cuccinelli analysis could mean that Cuccinelli could challenge the legality of gay friendly local ordinances.

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The reality is that neither the Virginia Constitution nor the Code of Virginia provide any express protections to LGBT Virginians. Indeed, they both contain anti-gay provisions such as the Marriage Amendment adopted in 2006. Added to that is Cuccinelli's far right religious extremism and his view that gays should have no rights. In today's development concerning adding domestic partners to employee benefits Cuccinelli stated that said that "his objections are based on law, not his personal conservative beliefs." The Dillon Rule provides Cuccinelli with an effective weapon to pursue an anti-gay jihad (Virginia Beach and a number of Northern Virginia municipalities have adopted ordinaces and/or employment policies banning discrimiantion based on sexual orientation) and all the while he can claim he is merely "following the law." Be assured that he'd be cheered on by Pat Robertson and The Family Foundation.

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Hopefully, I am worrying about nothing. But given McDonnell and Cuccinelli's history of anti-gay bigotry, all LGBT Virginian's have cause to worry.