North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Where Maryland Rules require the recording of proceedings and allow the public to obtain copies of those proceedings, a ban on broadcasting those recordings was subject to strict scrutiny. Because the district court applied only intermediate scrutiny in upholding the ...
Read More »Constitutional – Ban on broadcasting criminal proceedings challenged
Constitutional – Sex offender denied visits with minor daughter 
Where the convicted sex-offender failed to show a regulation prohibiting sex offenders from having in-person visits with minors unless they received an exception lacked “a rational relation to legitimate penological interests,” his First Amendment right to association claim was dismissed. ...
Read More »Constitutional – Maryland governor, AG improperly named as defendants
Where a professional counselor seeking to provide talk therapy to reduce his minor clients’ same-sex attractions alleged a Maryland law proscribing this practice violated the First Amendment, he improperly sued the governor and attorney general. Neither defendant was sufficiently connected ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Falsely claiming to be AUSA nets conviction
Where the defendant falsely told police officers and court officials that the charges brought against him would be dismissed because he was an Assistant United States attorney, or AUSA, and repeated that he was an AUSA when he was trying ...
Read More »Civil Practice – Amended complaint supplied basis for removal
Where the original complaint filed by a landowner alleging her house was damaged when a railroad diverted water asserted only state-law claims for negligence, nuisance and trespass, but her amended complaint included new claims for adverse possession and prescriptive easement ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Question about illegal items in car wasn’t improper
Where a police officer asked two occupants in a stopped car whether there was “anything illegal” in the car, the motion to suppress firearms found in the car was denied because the question went to officer safety, given the time ...
Read More »Constitutional – Suit unripe, moot where challenged opinions withdrawn
Where a labor union challenged advisory opinions limiting government employees’ speech about impeachment efforts in 2020, but those opinions were withdrawn after then-President Trump left office and there was no credible allegation of any chilling effect from the opinions while ...
Read More »Constitutional – No Takings Clause claim for county’s killing of bees
Where a South Carolina county warned residents before it sprayed for mosquitoes in an effort to prevent the spread of the Zika virus, including issuing a press release to many media outlets and providing the experienced pilot with the locations ...
Read More »Insurance – Dismissal of interpleader action was error
Where the insurance company filed an interpleader action to limit its liability in connection with suits brought against a convenience store arising out of the sale of alcohol to minors, the district court erred in dismissing the action. Because the ...
Read More »Criminal Practice – Failure to give confession instruction not error
Where the district court is alleged to have erred by failing to instruct the jury “to give such weight to the confession as the jury feels it deserves under all the circumstances” when it admitted a confession into evidence, the ...
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