A UNC School of Government Blog
Jeff Welty 
State court decisions from other southeastern states seem to carry a bit more weight as persuasive authority than do cases from jurisdictions that are farther afield. Therefore, I thought I’d summarize a recent decision by the Georgia Court of Appeals about searching cell phones incident to arrest. The case is Hawkins v. State. A police … Read more
It’s been two weeks since the last news roundup, so there’s a lot to report: 1. Superior Court Judges Catherine Eagles and Ripley Rand have been confirmed by the Senate to new federal jobs in the Middle District of North Carolina, Rand as United States Attorney and Eagles as a district judge. Congratulations to both! … Read more
I’ve written about law enforcement access to electronic communications, both on this blog and, more extensively, in this Administration of Justice Bulletin. One major issue is how and when law enforcement can obtain a suspect’s email from the suspect’s email provider. There are lots of wrinkles, but broadly, there’s a federal statute called the Stored … Read more
An involuntary confession can’t be used against a defendant at trial, not even to impeach him if he testifies. See, e.g., Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385 (1978). Whether a confession is voluntary is determined by examining the totality of the circumstances, see, e.g., Withrow v. Williams, 507 U.S. 680 (1993), and asking whether “the … Read more
Today, the court of appeals decided State v. Baker. Baker explains when a trial judge is required to make findings of fact when hearing a motion to suppress, and it raises what I think is an interesting search and seizure issue. The facts were as follows. An officer was on patrol near a nursing facility … Read more
The top story of the week is the controversy surrounding the new ban on electronic sweepstakes. I posted about it yesterday, and after my initial post, the Attorney General issued an opinion letter regarding the situation, and announced his intention to appeal a superior court judge’s ruling that held part of the law unconstitutional. But … Read more
I’ve blogged before about the General Assembly’s latest effort to eradicate internet sweepstakes. Because G.S. 14-306.4 went into effect yesterday, I’ve had lots of questions about the law. (I even made a brief television appearance — apparently, my 15 minutes seconds of fame.) My colleague Chris McLaughlin posted about the controversy in this area yesterday … Read more
Last month, the State Bar issued a proposed ethics opinion regarding contact between prosecutors and defense lawyers, on the one hand, and children who are prosecuting witnesses in criminal cases involving allegations of physical or sexual abuse, on the other. The proposed opinion, which is available here, concludes that a lawyer “may not interview a … Read more
I intended to have a deep, substantive post ready for today. But in the press of holiday preparations, I didn’t complete it — and in any case, there’s been some significant criminal law news this week. The top story, of course, is that former governor Easley pled guilty yesterday to a single felony count of … Read more
The court of appeals issued a batch of opinions this week, at least two of which are absolutely fascinating and will be featured on this blog next week. But those opinions were hardly the only big news this week: 1. Adam Liptak, in the New York Times, has an article arguing that the Supreme Court … Read more