The North Carolina Court of Appeals filed State v. Alston, No. COA25-291, on February 18, 2026, resolving an appeal arising from a driving-while-impaired conviction entered upon an Alford plea in Alamance County Superior Court. The opinion addresses two distinct issues that arise regularly in DWI defense practice: What the totality-of-the-circumstances…
DUI checkpoints remain constitutionally permissible under both the Fourth Amendment and Article I, Section 20 of the North Carolina Constitution, provided they satisfy the balancing test articulated in federal and state precedent and comply with the procedural safeguards in N.C.G.S. § 20-16.3A. That principle is settled law and has been…
DUI checkpoints in North Carolina remain constitutional under a January 2026 Court of Appeals decision that clarifies how police must conduct sobriety checkpoints and license checkpoints. In North Carolina vs White (“State v. White”) the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed that a DWI checkpoint in Robeson County complied with both…
North Carolina law permits courts, in defined circumstances, to authorize limited driving during certain pretrial license revocations arising from impaired driving charges. That authority exists within the civil revocation framework and is governed by statute, not by the outcome of the criminal case. Whether a pretrial limited privilege is available…
Claims that ketogenic diets can routinely cause false DUI readings have become staples of internet legal forums, social media explainers, and unsupervised biohacking communities lacking peer review or clinical validation, despite the absence of supporting forensic or toxicology data. The narrative usually follows a predictable formula. Ketosis produces acetone. Breath…
Blood testing is often viewed as the most dependable way to measure alcohol concentration in a North Carolina DWI case. The science behind BAC tests is powerful, but it is also technical, layered with protocols, human decision points, and laboratory processes that must be followed with precision. When a “drunk…
This post continues the Breath, Blood, and Bull series, an in-depth look at how science, procedure, and perception collide in the prosecution and defense of DWI cases in North Carolina. The first installment examined the limits of chemical testing. The second article turned to the machines that interpret alcohol breath…
The Limits of Chemical Certainty: The Auto-Brewery Syndrome & DWI Charges Auto-Brewery Syndrome (ABS) remains a bit of a theoretical curiosity. It represents a measurable biochemical anomaly during which yeast or bacteria residing in the gastrointestinal tract convert carbohydrates into ethanol within the human body. Though somewhat rare, it is…
TL;DR Quick Take: The legacy of North Carolina v. Rogers reaches beyond suppression hearings. It redefines how courts balance government trust against the structural necessity of constitutional discipline. Whether this evolution strengthens justice or weakens liberty depends on how future courts interpret the limits of “reasonableness” in applying the Good…
This post continues the Breath, Blood, and Bull series, which explores how science, technology, and human judgment shape DWI enforcement in North Carolina. The first article examined the limits of field sobriety testing. This installment turns to the machines that translate breath into evidence, using “breathalyzers.” By unpacking how they…