north carolina court of appeals

Human Rights

NC courts grapple with monuments to jurist who brutalized the enslaved

By Billy Corriher

June 30, 2020 - Black Lives Matter protesters recently targeted a statue of former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin, an enslaver and rapist notorious for sanctioning physical violence against enslaved people. Days later, a commission discussed removing an enormous portrait of Ruffin that looms over the state Supreme Court.

Another blow to North Carolina's new voter ID law

By Billy Corriher

February 26, 2020 - Ruling that a 2018 voter ID law could disenfranchise black voters, the North Carolina Court of Appeals put it on hold last week. A federal court had already blocked the law through the state's primaries, and this latest decision means it's likely to be blocked through November.

Human Rights

North Carolina courts may finally address racism in jury selection

By Billy Corriher

February 13, 2020 - Supreme courts in every other Southern state have addressed the problem of racist jury selection. But in the decades since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such discrimination unconstitutional, North Carolina courts have turned away every claim.

Can a racially gerrymandered legislature amend the N.C. constitution?

By Billy Corriher

July 18, 2019 - A judge recently ruled that the North Carolina legislature lost its power to amend the state constitution after federal courts ruled that it was unconstitutionally gerrymandered by race. Now new evidence suggests that lawmakers misled judges to buy time to pass the amendments.