She then returned to her hometown and attended undergraduate and graduate level courses at James Madison University, from which she received a J.D.
[3] In 1975, voters from Rockingham, Page, and Shenandoah Counties elected incumbent Republican I. Clinton Miller and Mrs. Paul to represent them in the Virginia House of Delegates (a part-time position).
[4] Mrs. Paul, who ran as a housewife, had been active in the local League of Women Voters and from 1974-1975 had served as a director of the Shenandoah Valley Soil and Water Conservation District, as well as on the Virginia Public Telecommunications Council (1973–75) and the Overall Advisory Council on Needs of Handicapped Children and Adults.
She and Independent Eva Mae Fleming Scott succeeded in blocking its passage in Virginia, despite the work of Democratic delegates Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid and Mary A. R. Marshall.
Admitted to the Virginia bar in 1983, Bonnie Lineweaver Paul currently has a private general legal practice, conducting a significant amount of civil rights defense as well as trusts and estates work.