Former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Exum could mediate a settlement of the criminal libel law dispute pitting the state attorney general against Wake County’s district attorney. Paperwork filed Friday in U.S. District Court shows that competing parties in the case titled Grimmett v. Freeman have agreed to use the 87-year-old Exum as a mediator.
During the last election campaign, a constant theme of newspapers and political commentators was that voters needed to elect Democratic justices to defend abortion rights. Who says? In State v Slagle, 82 NC 653 and 83 NC 630 (1880), the North Carolina Supreme Court found that abortion was a common-law crime from conception. The judges...
Three former N.C. Supreme Court chief justices and a well-respected constitutional scholar enter the debate.
As the N.C. Supreme Court considers whether to boot two Republican justices from a high-profile case involving voter ID, three former chief justices are weighing in. Without making a specific recommendation, the former chiefs nonetheless tout the benefits of the system the court has used throughout its history. That system relies on individual justices to...
N.C. Appeals Court Judge Lucy Inman is aggressively campaigning for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Inman announced her intentions shortly after being defeated by fellow Court of Appeals Judge Phil Berger Jr. in 2020 for an open seat on the state’s highest court. Berger defeated Inman 51% to 49%, a margin of 71,517...
The six living retired N.C. Supreme Court chief justices have signed onto a letter opposing two constitutional amendments that sit now in legal limbo. Retired Chief Justices Rhoda Billings, James Exum, Henry Frye, Beverly Lake, Burley Mitchell, and Sarah Parker signed the “Statement of Concerned Lawyers.” Billings and Lake were elected as Republicans. The others...
A new unofficial congressional district map released Monday by a bipartisan panel of former state judges was not received warmly by the members of the General Assembly who have the legal authority to set election district lines. The proposal, a result of a joint project between Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and Common Cause North Carolina,...
RALEIGH — The Division of Motor Vehicles now has guidelines directing its officers to issue a special voter ID card to students, and others with out-of-state driver’s licenses, allowing them to vote while notifying them they have 60 days to get a North Carolina driver’s license. Any new resident planning to operate a motor vehicle in North Carolina has 60 days to get a North Carolina driver’s license.
RALEIGH — Attorney General Roy Cooper’s use of a personal liability umbrella insurance policy to pay for his defense in a 13-year-old defamation lawsuit allows him to keep confidential how much he has paid lawyers for his defense, something he could not do if he were using a campaign account or legal defense fund.
RALEIGH — Retired Raleigh attorney Bernard Harrell has asked the State Board of Elections to investigate Attorney General Roy Cooper’s political campaign for not reporting in-kind contributions from nine attorneys and their law firms. According to his letter, after thoroughly researching the issue Harrell thought he should call “attention to what appear to be substantial and continuing violations of the campaign laws of North Carolina.” Cooper’s campaign responded that “the legal costs in this case are being paid by private insurance. The premise of the letter to the Board – that lawyers are contributing services – is wrong.”
