news

There must be some sort of planetary alignment taking place today: Duke, UNC, and NC State all play in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the new iPad goes on sale, and best of all, it is time for another news roundup. 1. This week’s headlines center on Forsyth County, because the state supreme court just … Read more

The New Hanover County courthouse was closed yesterday to deal with “bedbugs . . . discovered by court personnel,” the News and Observer reports here. Yuck. In other news: 1. The General Statues posted on the General Assembly’s website are now current though January 5, 2012, so they’re essentially completely up to date. They’re certainly … Read more

There’s a lot going on this week! The removal hearing in Durham concerning District Attorney Tracey Cline has ended, with Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood promising a decision Friday morning. The dispute over consent searches in Fayetteville has taken a new turn, with a judge entering a temporary restraining order requiring the city to lift … Read more

I can’t stop writing about Fayetteville! The city council’s 120-day moratorium on consent searches by the police during traffic stops came under fire this week from several angles. First, the Attorney General’s office issued an advisory letter concluding, in essence, that a municipal government can’t take away a power granted by a state statute — … Read more

There’s been a lot going on this week. The first evidentiary hearing under the Racial Justice Act has come to an end. The Fayetteville Observer reports on the parties’ closing arguments here. Both sides are expected to file additional briefs, and a decision is unlikely for several weeks. The national media is interested in the … Read more

Last week’s top stories are still going, including litigation under the Racial Justice Act in Fayetteville. The Fayetteville Observer’s latest story is here, summarizing the testimony of the state’s statistician. For those with a numerical bent, it’s pretty interesting. But many of us are looking ahead to next week and Valentine’s Day. Apparently that includes … Read more

All roads lead to Fayetteville. Now, there’s a sentence I never thought I’d type. But this week, it’s true. Mainly, the first evidentiary hearing in a Racial Justice Act case is taking place there. Here’s today’s article from the Fayetteville Observer, which details some of the testimony that attorneys for death row inmate Marcus Reymond … Read more

The Jones GPS tracking case was the biggest legal news of the week. I blogged about it here, and plan to post some additional thoughts next week, but in the meantime, it is worth noting the Supreme Court Haiku capturing the case: GPS on car Cops installed and monitored “Search” that needs warrant In other … Read more

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  To commemorate the occasion, National Public Radio’s Fresh Air broadcast this interview with Ohio State University law professor Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander argues that the mass incarceration of African-Americans in the war on drugs strips such … Read more

There was some serious legal news this week, like the issuance of the Supreme Court’s recent Brady decision, Smith v. Cain, and the Court’s decision to grant certiorari in the dog-sniffs-a-house case I mentioned last week, Florida v. Jardines. The fact that homicide is no longer one of the top 15 causes of death in … Read more