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Wow. That was a surprise. Donald Trump has been elected to serve as the nation’s 45^th president, defying the outcome nearly all the experts predicted, in what The Washington Post called a “shocking ending” to a “traumatic campaign.”

President-elect Trump carried North Carolina by 3.8 percentage points over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. That’s an impressive margin for a state that Republican nominee Mitt Romney carried by 2.2 percent over President Obama in 2012, and which Obama won by less than a percentage point in 2008.

What impact will a Trump presidency have on the legal issues discussed in this blog? 

Beyond the Bench, the podcast of the Judicial College here at the School of Government, is back with a new season. Professor Sara DePasquale takes the reins as the host […]

Two Iowa police officers were shot and killed early Wednesday morning in ambush attacks that made national news.  As the Des Moines Register reports, Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin and Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony Beminio each were shot while in their vehicles. The lone suspect, Scott Michael Greene, was apprehended a few hours after the shootings.  Early reports indicate that Greene had a run-in with Urbandale officers in the middle of last month after an incident at a high school football game where he waved a Confederate flag in front of a group of African-Americans and was ejected from the stadium.  The stadium is located at a traffic intersection where one of the officers was shot.  Keep reading for more news.

I’m a big baseball fan. (A Pittsburgh Pirates fan, if you’re wondering.) And so of course I stayed up late last night to watch what turned out to be a thrilling end to an historic World Series. I hate to spoil things for those of you who get all your news—legal and otherwise—from this blog, but the Cubs won.

In criminal proceedings, court orders can affect other agencies. When the court imposes a sentence of imprisonment, the Division of Adult Correction has the responsibility of carrying it out. If the court issues a limited driving privilege in a traffic case, a person can drive even though the Division of Motor Vehicles has revoked the person’s license. A court may grant an expunction petition, requiring law enforcement agencies to destroy records of the criminal case. What happens if the affected agency believes that the order is unlawful? A recent decision, In re Timberlake (Oct. 18, 2016), provides some clarity about the procedures to follow, at least in the context of that case.

The NC Department of Public Safety says that a portion of Neuse Correctional Institution was evacuated on Monday morning following a disturbance that started late Sunday afternoon. According to a press release, a small group of inmates “set two separate fires, one inside the prison’s diagnostic building and one that destroyed a storage shed.” The inmates also broke windows and damaged four dorms. Approximately 500 inmates were transferred to other prisons because of the damage. Keep reading for more news.

As the News & Observer reports, the Orange County Republican Party headquarters in Hillsborough was firebombed and vandalized over the weekend. According to the report, “[a] flaming bottle was thrown through a window of the office” and an adjacent building was vandalized with paintings of a swastika and the phrase “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” The incident drew the attention of both presidential candidates, and vice-presidential candidate Mike Pence and Governor McCrory each visited the headquarters. McCrory has offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case. Keep reading for more news.

Today’s post discusses two recent federal cases involving the use of Tasers in North Carolina jails. (The post draws from an article I originally prepared for the North Carolina Jail Administrators’ Association newsletter.)

Every year as I do presentations about new criminal law legislation, a smaller piece of legislation catches my eye. Invariably as I look into the legislation, I learn about the concerns that led to the legislation. An example this year is S.L. 2016-113 sec. 3 (S 770), which allows the culling of feral swine—that is, wild boar—from aircraft. At first glance, the description conjures up images of hunting parties taking to the sky to go after wild boar. That’s not what the legislation contemplates. Taking wild animals from or with the use of aircraft remains a misdemeanor under North Carolina law. See G.S. 113-191.1(b)(1); G.S. 113-135(a). The legislation adds a new statute, G.S. 113-299, creating a narrow exception from this prohibition for wildlife officers and similar federal employees. What’s behind the legislation? What does it allow? What doesn’t it allow?

In a recent interview with Katie Couric, Justice Ginsburg discussed San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his practice of kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. She described Kaepernick’s conduct as “dumb and disrespectful,” compared it to flag burning, and said “I think it’s a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn’t lock a person up for doing it.” Is it OK for a judge to say that?