You Can’t Tell Just from the Smell
I’ve been asked more than once about whether the odor of alcohol combined with a positive reading on a portable breath alcohol screening test device, such as an ALCO-SENSOR, without […]
Summary of Probation Reform Bill
The General Assembly has passed several interesting pieces of legislation recently, but none are more consequential than S 920, the probation reform bill signed by Governor Perdue last week. I […]
New Blog Feature
The fantastic IT folks here at the School of Government have just added a new feature to the blog: email subscription. Subscribers are notified by email of each new post, […]
Double Punishment but No Double Jeopardy
Donna Defendant’s license was revoked on May 1, 2007 upon her conviction of driving after consuming in violation of G.S. 20-13.2. On January 15, 2008, Donna Defendant was charged with […]
Do Officers Need More than a Warrant to Search a Computer?
The Ninth Circuit recently decided United States v. Payton, a computer search case that quietly adopts some pretty radical ideas. Based on the lack of comments on my previous computer […]
Scheduling of Controlled Substances
Several months ago, an attorney contacted me to ask whether a particular drug was on one of controlled substance schedules, and if so, which one. I did the obvious: I looked at […]
News Roundup
Several recent news stories that may be of interest: 1. Governor Perdue just signed S 920, which makes substantial changes to the probation laws. For example, it requires all probationers […]
Legislative “Fix” for State v. Byrd
Remember State v. Byrd, the case that held that ex parte domestic violence TROs aren’t “protective orders” under Chapter 50B? I blogged about it here, and I highlighted a more […]
Satellite-Based Monitoring and State v. Kilby
by School of Government faculty member Jamie Markham There are two categories of sex offenders subject to satellite-based monitoring: those subject to lifetime monitoring, and those subject to monitoring for […]
The Gates Case and North Carolina Law
I am reluctant to dip my toes into the waters of controversy swirling around the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, but it provides a useful framework for discussing […]