The Facts and Posture of United States v. Carter  Does a sentence increase for a defendant who refuses to name their accomplice violate a defendant’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination? The Fourth Circuit, in U.S. v. Carter, 87 F.4th 217 (2023), did not decide the issue, but it highlighted a looming circuit split on the …

What is the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA)?  CSPOA is a “law enforcement organization that operates on the tenet that the sheriff is the highest authority in any country and has the right, even the duty to reject any perceived intrusion by general entities.” The group is full of election deniers and COVID-19 …

North Carolina House Bill 40, commonly known as the “Anti-Riot Act” goes into effect on December 1st.   What is HB 40?   Introduced by House Speaker Tim Moore, HB 40 passed through the North Carolina General Assembly last Spring and was signed into law in March. Moore introduced an identical bill in 2021 directly after the …

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) faces another civil rights complaint. Last April, the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Justice Clinic, on behalf of North Carolina nonprofits and residents, filed a complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Civil Rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the …

According to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, courts can let people with mental health conditions sit in jail, indefinitely, waiting for mental health evaluations to determine whether they need to be involuntarily committed to regain the mental capacity to proceed to trial. This decision balks in the face of due process, justice, and the …

What happens when someone’s Miranda rights are violated? Who is held accountable? These are questions that the United States’ Supreme Court (“Supreme Court” or “Court”) has left unanswered following its ruling in Vega v. Tekoh. At issue in this case was whether a violation of Miranda could be the basis for a Section 1983 claim. …

In June 2022, when the Fourth Circuit ruled in Peltier v. Charter Day School, Inc. that charter school students are not beyond the reach of Constitutional protections, it prevented these institutions from being havens for blatant gender discrimination.   The defendant in this case, Charter Day School (CDS) in Brunswick County, North Carolina, is a …

Imagine you have a child who is deaf, but her school refuses to provide her with an in-class sign language interpreter. This happened to Amy Rowley in 1982 and situations like hers remain all too common. Parents of students with disabilities have the right to challenge schools’ inaction and seek changes in services. This right …