North Carolina Constitution

October 19, 2025

State v. Rogers: Slow Death of the Exclusionary Rule in NC?

TL;DR Quick Take: North Carolina v. Rogers could prove to be one of the most consequential constitutional rulings in North Carolina criminal 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.”

October 15, 2025

Judicial Independence in North Carolina

by Carolina Attorneys

Judicial independence is one of the defining principles of American government. It protects the courts from political retaliation, 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.

October 12, 2025

Due Process in North Carolina and American Jurisprudence

by Carolina Attorneys

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.

September 29, 2025

The Rule of Law in North Carolina

by Carolina Attorneys

Do you believe in the Rule of Law? Talking heads from various sources bandy about Due Process, Equal Protection, and the Rule of Law. But what do those terms really mean and are they even relevant in today’s perpetual, and frankly exhausting, messaging infrastructure?

Stripped of partisan slogans, the concept of the Rule of Law is neither vague nor ornamental. It has a precise meaning rooted in centuries of legal thought and practice.

It is not about who shouts the loudest or which faction claims the phrase; it is about the structure that makes the government accountable to the governed and liberty possible.