North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

When a defendant directed officers searching his home to a gun under the couch, he was responding to their question to his wife, not to him. Therefore, no grounds existed to suppress his voluntary statements about the gun. No other ...

Tagged with: interrogation

After U.S. Supreme Court precedent invalidated one of the defendant’s three predicate convictions mandating a sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act, his sentence could not be sustained by a “substitute” conviction that appeared on his pre-sentence report but ...

Tagged with: substitution

By the unambiguous terms of a plea agreement, the government had discretion to determine whether the defendant had complied with his obligation under the agreement to give full and complete testimony when asked. Given this discretion, it was not required ...

Tagged with: sentence reduction

A district court did not err in denying preliminary injunctive relief to preserve the National Labor Relations Board’s ability to award relief following its adjudication of unfair labor practice charges against two hospitals. Because the Board did not show irreparable ...

Tagged with: Winter factor

In three wrongful death suits in which the jury found liability and awarded punitive damages, the district court erred in finding that the plaintiffs failed to show an “aggravating factor” under North Carolina law that would support punitives. Extensive trial ...

Tagged with: evidence

A university did not restrict or chill students’ speech by seeking their response to complaints that they had harassed others. The students, who’d sought and obtained university approval for a campus “Free Speech Event,” met with an official to discuss ...

Tagged with: Free Speech

Fired the day after asking for grievance paperwork, a black employee reasonably believed she was subject to a hostile work environment that was attributable to her employer. The district court erred in granting summary judgment against her. Background In August ...

Tagged with: Title VII

The federal Copyright Remedy Clarification Act’s broad abrogation of states’ sovereign immunity for copyright infringement was not a valid exercise of Congressional authority, either under Article I’s Copyright Clause or § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Background In 1717, the ...

Tagged with: Copyright

An immigrant was not ineligible for cancellation of removal based solely on $100 in court costs that he paid after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor. Such costs, which are not discretionary and sometimes are imposed by the court clerk, are ...

Tagged with: penalty

Six defendants tried together were properly convicted of murder and attempted murder offenses related to their gang membership. Their convictions were upheld despite challenges to prosecutorial conduct, jury instructions, evidence admitted at trial, joint trial, access to counsel, warrantless cell ...

Tagged with: MS-13