The petition tracker has been updated with the Supreme Court’s most recent rulings on petitions for discretionary review. The Court accepted three new civil cases dealing with various topics such as charter schools, municipal development ordinances, and evictions. The Court will also be reviewing a juvenile delinquency case and (via a petition for writ of certiorari) another TPR case. As always, we will keep you updated as new developments occur.… Continue Reading
Updated Petition Tracker: Seven New Cases
In its most recent batch of decisions, the Supreme Court of North Carolina granted petitions for discretionary review in four criminal cases and three civil cases. The petition tracker has been updated to reflect these additions.
–Kip Nelson… Continue Reading
To Err Is Human, But to Review Is Divine—Exceptions to Preserving Error
Finally found time to blog on one of my favorite topics: exceptions and qualifications to the error preservation requirements of Appellate Rule 10! (Um, I heard those groans!). A few weeks ago the North Carolina Supreme Court issued two new opinions shedding additional light on this semi-fascinating topic.
Under the Statutory Mandate Exception to Appellate Rule 10, Trial Judges Generally are Not Required to Supervise the Conduct of “Outside” State Actors
New Blog Feature: Petition Tracker
Today we’re introducing a new feature for the blog: the petition tracker. You can check out the petition tracker page here, or by clicking on “Petitions Allowed” in the banner at the top of any page on the blog.
Although our state constitution says that the “courts shall be open,” open hasn’t always meant “clear.” Before we created this feature, we realized that it wasn’t easy to track the cases pending at the Supreme Court.… Continue Reading
Petition Allowed: The Beasley Court Adds Its First Discretionary Cases
The Supreme Court released a batch of orders today, denying review in many cases (as usual) but also granting review in six cases. These six grants—the first from the new Beasley Court—cover issues ranging from federal immigration enforcement by local law enforcement agencies to defamation and Batson challenges.
First up are the habeas petitions of two immigrants detained by the sheriff of Mecklenburg County.… Continue Reading
Supreme Court Reaffirms That Non-Constitutional Sentencing Arguments Are Automatically Preserved for Appellate Review
In October 2018, I gave a CLE presentations with (now recently sworn in) Judge Allegra Collins: “Life Preservers on the Titanic: Issues Not Properly Preserved for Appellate Review.” Part of the presentation posed this question: Can the General Assembly enact a rule or law that automatically preserves certain issues for appellate review? At the time, the answer to that question was as follows:
- Yes.
Supreme Court Reverses Court of Appeals Application of Appellate Rule 2
Last Friday was a blockbuster appellate day for the Supreme Court of North Carolina. Not only did it effectively declare an appellate jurisdiction statute unconstitutional (see Matt’s blog post), but Justice Newby authored a concurring opinion inspired by “It’s a Wonderful Life.” (“Was Old Man Potter simply morally corrupt or was he also guilty of a crime?”).
For North Carolina’s appellate defenders, however, Friday was not a wonderful day.… Continue Reading
Court of Appeals Downsizing Bill Becomes Law & More Jurisdictional Changes for Supreme Court
On Wednesday, the General Assembly overrode the Governor’s veto of House Bill 239. Against opposition from the bench and the bar, the legislature pushed the court-shrinking bill through on a mostly party–line vote. The override votes came on the heels of a remarkable move by retiring Judge Douglas McCullough–a registered Republican–who reportedly retired a month early to avoid having his seat eliminated by the bill.… Continue Reading
An “Improvident” Decision
On occasion, the Supreme Court of North Carolina will grant a petition for discretionary review and then later decide that the grant was “improvidently allowed.” See, e.g., here and here and here. The U.S. Supreme Court sometimes reaches the same result.
Because these opinions usually provide little, if any, explanation, we are often left to guess at the basis for the court’s decision.… Continue Reading
More On Jurisdiction and SED
Last week I wrote about the Court of Appeals’ holding in SED Holdings, LLC v. 3 Star Properties, LLC regarding the jurisdiction of the trial court while an interlocutory appeal is pending. See here. A few weeks prior, before the SED II opinion was released, Mack Sperling provided some excellent insight on his blog as to what was happening in the trial court in SED and how the court’s jurisdiction was impacted by the Petition for Discretionary Review that defendants had filed (and that was subsequently allowed) regarding the Court of Appeals’ decision in SED I. … Continue Reading