The full 15-member 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals displayed clear divisions Wednesday when considering Maryland’s law banning the AR-15 rifle and other guns described as assault weapons. The case prompted a friend-of-the-court brief from the John Locke Foundation this month at the nation’s highest court.
The John Locke Foundation has helped file a friend-of-the-court brief at the nation’s highest court in a case challenging Maryland gun restrictions. Second Amendment supporters filed a petition on Feb. 8 asking the US Supreme Court to take the case, Bianchi v. Brown, before the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals could issue a ruling.
North Carolina experienced a 19.2% spike in background checks for gun purchases in 2023, according to FBI data, the third highest rate of all 50 states.
Top Democrats in North Carolina are mum on a major breach of decorum in the leak of a draft opinion in a major national abortion case at the U.S. Supreme Court, a violation of unprecedented While Republicans are roundly denouncing the leak and calling for an investigation, Democrats are taking a “nothing to see here” approach. Attempts by Carolina Journal to reach Gov. Roy Cooper, Attorney General Josh Stein, and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Cheri Beasley for comment specifically on the leak were not successful Tuesday afternoon. All three Democrats have issued statements criticizing the draft ruling, but none have commented on the leak.
The N.C. legislature has passed a bill that would allow someone with a concealed carry permit to carry a handgun onto property that is both a church and a school, but only during non-school hours. The bill heads to the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper. Current law makes carrying a weapon onto a school property...
More than a year has passed since North Carolina voters adopted a constitutional amendment requiring voters to present state-approved identification documents at the polls. The General Assembly later passed a law setting the rules for allowable IDs. But because of litigation leading a judge to block implementation, the rules remain in limbo. That’s fine with...
It may be weeks — perhaps months — before a three-judge panel issues a ruling on whether lawmakers drew N.C. voting districts legally, or whether the legislative districts are partisan gerrymanders. The three-judge panel handling Common Cause v. Lewis at the trial level could obviously rule either way: for the defendants — who represent Republicans...
Lawmakers are developing rules for the freshly passed voter ID constitutional amendment. But nobody believes the law will take effect without a pitched court battle. One voting law expert has a suggestion. “I would recommend that the state legislature include a provision in any enabling legislation that gives the legislature the power to appoint a...
Some First Amendment experts say a federal judge in Seattle erred in blocking a company from publishing blueprints for plastic guns, and N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein is wrong for supporting the decision because it’s an unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech. Stein posted on Twitter, and copied his post on the state Department of...
Gov. Roy Cooper may have run out of legal options to counter House and Senate action canceling his order to convene Thursday in a 14-day special session, a longtime General Assembly staff lawyer says.
Updated at 1 p.m. May 16 to include comments from Wake Forest University law professor Michael Curtis The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down the Republican-led General Assembly’s laws requiring voter identification at the polls, altering early voting, and abolishing same-day voter registration....
