Yesterday was election day. This post summarizes results that are relevant to the criminal justice system.
Jeff Welty
Police Jurisdiction in Satellite and Related Areas
I’ve had several questions recently about the territorial jurisdiction of municipal police in areas outside city limits. This post sums up the law.
News Roundup
Ah, Halloween. Spooks and ghouls and mostly baseless worry about criminal activity involving poisoned candy. Regular readers may recall that I blogged previously about the lack of actual episodes of adulterated candy, and about the laws that would apply if any such incident should occur.
Same Sex Marriage and Domestic Violence
Same sex marriage has been permitted in North Carolina for a couple of weeks. Shea blogged here about one potential criminal law implication: the possibility, discussed in a memorandum from the Administrative Office of the Courts, that magistrates could be charged criminally for refusing to marry same-sex couples. As noted in this recent news article, a number of magistrates have resigned as a result. But the issue I’ve been asked most about is how same-sex marriage relates to our domestic violence laws.
Ebola, Quarantines, and Criminal Law
Ebola’s been in the news lately, with several infected individuals on American soil. New York and New Jersey have begun to quarantine individuals arriving from West Africa who have had contact with infected people, and a nurse subjected to quarantine threatened a legal challenge. So, what’s the law? And what are the potential criminal law implications?
News Roundup
Remember Shea’s post about same-sex marriage and how the AOC has advised magistrates that they could face criminal prosecution if they refused to marry same-sex couples? State Senator Phil Berger has announced plans to file a bill to allow officials with religious objections to opt out of performing such marriages. The News and Observer story about the matter makes clear that if such a bill is enacted, it will be challenged in court.
Stingrays
This weekend, the Charlotte Observer ran this article, entitled Charlotte Police Investigators Secretly Track Cellphones. The article concerns the use of so-called stingrays, also known as IMSI catchers or cell site simulators. They are machines that simulate cell towers and connect with the cellular telephones located nearby. Officers frequently use them to triangulate the location of a suspect – or more precisely, the location of a suspect’s phone. There’s a controversy about the legal status of these devices, which I’ll summarize in this post.
Summary of the 2014 Legislative Session
I’ve been meaning to highlight this for some time now: the School of Government’s annual summary of legislation of interest of court officials is available here as a free PDF. It includes sections on criminal law, motor vehicle law, and juvenile law, as well as other sections that may be less relevant for readers of this blog. Below, I note one important legislative change that will come into effect soon.
News Roundup
I would like to think that the blog is influential, but events this week called that hypothesis into question. Wake County Superior Court Judge Don Stephens ruled that concealed handguns may be prohibited at the State Fair, notwithstanding my suggestion here that the better reading of the law is otherwise. The AP story is here. In other news:
New Service: Fourth Circuit Case Summaries
Semi-retired faculty member Bob Farb has begun a new service that may be of interest to some readers. He is summarizing select published Fourth Circuit opinions. Generally, he will focus on criminal cases and civil cases that have a criminal law connection. For example, his first summary concerns Owens v. Baltimore City State’s Attorneys Office, ___ F.3d ___, 2014 WL 4723803 (4th Cir. Sept. 24, 2014), a civil case filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging in part that law enforcement officers intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence in a murder case.