Articles Tagged with Rule of Law

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.

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.

Do you believe in the Rule of Law? Talking heads from various sources bandy about Due Process, Equal Protection, and the Rule of Map outline of North Carolina filled with red, white, and blue horizontal stripes inspired by the state flag, set against a plain gray background. 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.

Every year, the last Monday in May brings the hum of lawnmowers, the smell of grilled food, and the first inklings of summer. For Memorial-Day-Bob-Conroy many, Memorial Day is a chance to gather with family, enjoy a day off work, or take a short trip.

I understand that. I enjoy those things too. But for me, Memorial Day has come to mean something more, something quieter, and something harder to name. That has everything to do with my grandfather, Robert L. “Bob” Conroy.

My maternal grandfather, “Papa,” served as a medic in World War II. He was stationed in Okinawa, one of the most brutal and prolonged battles of the war.

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