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This post continues the Breath, Blood, and Bull series, which explores how science, technology, and human judgment shape DWI Police officer speaking with a driver during a traffic stop, illustrating field sobriety and breath testing procedures in North Carolina DWI investigations 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 measure alcohol, where they can fail, and how lawyers challenge their results, you’ll see why science is not necessarily as simple as a number on a printout.

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Judicial activism is one of the most debated concepts in American constitutional law. It describes a form of judicial behavior in which Judge seated in a courtroom, wearing a black robe with sunlight filtering through a window, symbolizing judicial authority, reflection, and the debate over judicial activism in American constitutional law courts are perceived to go beyond interpreting the law and instead make policy choices that belong to the political branches.

To its critics, judicial activism threatens the separation of powers and undermines democratic accountability.

To its defenders, it represents a necessary means of protecting rights when elected officials fail to do so.

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TL;DR Quick Take: North Carolina v. Rogers could prove to be one of the most consequential constitutional rulings in North Carolina criminal A senior North Carolina judge sits in a historic courtroom, wearing a black judicial robe and gazing forward with a thoughtful, serious expression. Sunlight filters through tall arched windows, reflecting the dignity and gravity of constitutional decision-making in North Carolina’s courts law in decades. The opinion not only interprets N.C.G.S. § 15A-974 but also redefines how North Carolina courts understand the relationship between the Fourth Amendment and Article I, Section 20 of the North Carolina State Constitution.

As applied, the Good Faith Exception articulated in State v. Rogers reverses longstanding precedent set forth in North Carolina v. Carter. 

The burden quietly shifts to the accused to demonstrate unreasonableness, reversing long-standing Due Process protections and draining both the fruit and the fiber from the “poisonous tree.”

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The Supreme Court of North Carolina’s opinion in North Carolina v. Rogers (Oct. 17, 2025) deserves careful study by Police officer standing beside a stopped car in North Carolina at dusk, representing the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule and Fourth Amendment search and seizure law. criminal defense and DUI defense lawyers.

TL;DR Quick Take North Carolina v. Rogers reshapes how certain suppression motions may be litigated in North Carolina. The Supreme Court interpreted the 2011 “good faith” amendment to N.C.G.S. §15A-974 as significantly limiting the scope of the exclusionary rule, allowing evidence obtained through unlawful searches to be admitted if officers relied on objectively reasonable belief in the legality of their conduct. The decision narrows the path for defendants seeking suppression and marks a turning point in how trial courts evaluate Fourth Amendment violations.

Editor’s Note: The Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Rogers addressed good-faith reliance on a judicial order, not warrantless arrests or searches. The opinion leaves open whether the same reasoning will apply to warrantless seizures or probable-cause challenges. For now, Rogers appears to narrow the exclusionary rule only in the context of judicially authorized warrants and orders.

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Accessing video evidence, body-cam, and dash-cam video in North Carolina potentially just became a lot harder to obtain. CMPD police officer’s uniform with a body-worn camera attached to the vest. The blurred city of Charlotte skyline in the background suggests an urban Mecklenburg County, North Carolina setting, representing law enforcement video evidence and accountability.

TL;DR Quick Take: North Carolina v. Chemuti limits how defendants can access police body-worn and dash-camera recordings. The Supreme Court held that Rule 45 subpoenas cannot compel production of law-enforcement video. Instead, defendants must file a petition under N.C.G.S. § 132-1.4A in superior court, which is the exclusive procedure for release.

The Chemuti ruling is significant because, unlike many states, North Carolina provides no traditional right to discovery in cases originating in district court.

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Judicial independence is one of the defining principles of American government. It protects the courts from political retaliation, Judge seated at a courtroom bench wearing a black robe, symbolizing judicial independence, fairness, and impartiality in North Carolina’s court system. intimidation, and coercion, allowing judges to apply the law faithfully rather than bending to public opinion or private pressure.

Without judicial independence, due process would be hollow, and the rule of law would collapse under the weight of fear.

North Carolina’s judiciary stands as a separate and equal branch of government, tracing its power and authority from the state’s earliest constitutional conventions through modern statutes and precedent.

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Due process is one of the most enduring phrases in the American constitutional tradition. It appears in the Fifth Amendment, binding the federal government, and in the Fourteenth Amendment, extending the guarantee to the states.

North Carolina’s Constitution also secures due process through Article I, Section 19, which provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property except by the “law of the land.”

Far from being ornamental language, due process reflects a working system of legal discipline that reaches from Magna Carta through North Carolina’s founding conventions into the daily practice of its courts.

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Quick Take: North Carolina vs. Wilson (Oct. 2025) holds that a defendant’s jailhouse letter admitting to a Image representing North Carolina judge in courtroom evaluating admissibility of jailhouse letters and defendant communications as evidence in criminal trials shooting to law enforcement was admissible as substantive evidence, even when framed as a negotiation.

  • Jailhouse letters in North Carolina are not protected under Rule 408 and may be used as proof of guilt.

  • The accused’s communications with law enforcement, including calls and cooperation offers, are generally admissible if voluntary and authenticated.

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When is video evidence admissible?

Quick Take: In North Carolina vs. Ramsey (COA25-145, filed Oct. 1, 2025), the Court of Appeals approved admission of a short cell-phone clip for illustrative purposes:

  • Eyewitness testified it fairly and accurately depicted what was observed
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Can You Appeal After a Guilty Plea in NorthJudge in a North Carolina courtroom considering whether a guilty plea can be appealed, reflecting legal debates in North Carolina v. Branham about plea rights and certiorari. Carolina?

Quick Take: North Carolina v. Branham shows that guilty pleas in North Carolina do not automatically preserve appellate rights, but certiorari may sometimes fill the gap.

  • The Court of Appeals held no statutory right existed to appeal a denied immunity motion after a guilty plea.

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