North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Where a church was aware of zoning restrictions when it purchased property, it could not have had a reasonable expectation of religious land use, dooming its claim under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act or RLUIPA. Because the ...
Read More »Constitutional – Denial of church’s zoning requests didn’t violate law
Constitutional — Red Light Camera Program – Local Laws – ‘Relating to Health’ – Funding Statute 
After being assessed a civil penalty for running a red light in Greenville, plaintiff brought a challenge under our state constitution’s prohibition against “local” laws “relating to health…” N.C. Const. art. II, § 24(1)(a). However, plaintiff’s challenge was brought, not ...
Read More »Constitutional — Fines & Forfeitures Clause – Red Light Cameras – Schools & School Boards – Municipal – Collection & Enforcement Costs
Fines collected pursuant to the City of Greenville’s red light camera program are paid to the school board, but the city violates N.C. Const. art. IX, § 7 and G.S. § 115C-437 when it charges the school board for enforcement ...
Read More »Constitutional — Contract – Labor & Employment – Public Employees – Health Insurance
Although the statutes enacting the State Health Plan did not themselves establish a contract requiring the state to provide a premium-free preferred provider organization health insurance plan which allocated 80 percent of the costs of health care services to the ...
Read More »Constitutional – Prison’s single-vendor policy did not violate Muslim detainee’s rights
Where a practicing Muslim detainee argued that he should not be forced to purchase his prayer oils from a commissary that sells swine and idols because Islam prohibits buying religious items from such vendors, the corrections department prevailed at trial ...
Read More »Constitutional – Sex-offender treatment variations are constitutional
Where Virginia’s sex-offender registry law allows an offender who is charged with “carnal knowledge of a child” to be removed from the registry in time if he is less than five years older than his victim, but not if he ...
Read More »Constitutional — Right to Farm Act – Limitation on Nuisance Actions
The Right to Farm Act, G.S. § 106-700, as amended in 2019, limits nuisance actions against farms. Although plaintiffs contend that the recent amendments to the statute violate the Law of the Land Clause, the amendments fall within the state’s ...
Read More »Constitutional – Challenge to COVID-19 restrictions is moot
Where a church alleged that certain COVID-19 executive orders issued by the Virginia governor violated its religious rights, but the orders expired in June 2020 and the state of emergency on which they were predicated ended in July 2021, the ...
Read More »Constitutional – Decisions allowing gun purchases by persons under 21 vacated
Where the Fourth Circuit previously held that a federal law banning the purchase of a handgun by persons under 21 violated the Second Amendment, but the plaintiff in that case turned 21 before the mandate issued, her original claims were ...
Read More »Constitutional – West Virginia ballot-order statute is constitutional
Where a West Virginia statute governing the order in which candidates’ names appear on state election ballots was neutral and nondiscriminatory, and any modest burden on the Democratic Party’s rights was justified by the state’s interests in promoting efficiency and ...
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