Displaying items by tag: Supreme Court

RALEIGH — The state House wants Congress to reject proposals for packing the U.S. Supreme Court. The House voted 68-44 Thursday to support a federal “Keep Nine” amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, that students don't "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." Schools may only prohibit, censor, or punish student speech which would "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school."

Kelo v. City of New London is one of the worst modern U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The 2005 high court case may not mean a lot to non-lawyers or to those not in a public policy field, but the 5-4 decision allowed for private property to be seized and transferred to another private party in the town of New London, Connecticut. A 2018 film titled “Little Pink House” starring Catherine Keener tells the harrowing story. A line from the film sums up the nightmare: “They can take your land. They can take your home, and it’s perfectly legal.”

RALEIGH — Elections officials in North Carolina will count absentee ballots mailed in by Nov. 12, nine days after Election Day. The U.S. Supreme Court, by a 5-3 vote, refused Republican legislative leaders’ request to enforce a state law setting the ballot deadline at Nov. 6.

RALEIGH — The U.S. Supreme Court will decide soon whether N.C. election officials count absentee ballots received by mail between Nov. 7 and Nov. 12. Two sets of plaintiffs filed paperwork Sunday, Oct. 25, arguing for the high court to block those ballots from being counted.

RALEIGH — The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a rule banning religious private schools from participating in scholarship programs.

RALEIGH — A second court has blocked voter ID in North Carolina — a move policymakers and analysts denounce as riddled with substantive and procedural problems.

On Aug. 11, 2014, officers from the Caldwell, Idaho, Police Department asked for Shaniz West’s permission to enter and search her home. They were looking for her ex-boyfriend. West authorized the search and handed over her keys.

On April 1, The Supreme Court of the United States ruled against death-row inmate Russell Bucklew's appeal of his execution method. Nixing his claim that a rare medical condition would make the execution unconstitutionally "cruel and unusual" by virtue of being excruciatingly painful, the Court (in an opinion written by Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch) held that the Eighth Amendment "does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death."

Yesterday (Tuesday), the Supreme Court heard cases concerning gerrymandering in North Carolina and Maryland. The results could have wide ranging implications.