Articles in the Judicial Authority category

For 94 years, the UNC School of Government has been the backbone of support for North Carolina’s public officials, from clerks and judges to budget analysts, municipal and county managers, newly elected officials, public defenders, and prosecutors. From Murphy to Manteo, we are here to ensure that those who serve our communities have the resources, training, and guidance they need to succeed. Today we are asking for your help to continue furthering this mission. Please watch this message from our Dean or read on to learn how you can be a spark in this effort.

In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court entered an emergency order applicable to certain impacted counties on September 29, […]

This post was written by UNC School of Government faculty member Tom Thornburg.   Following years of discussion and drafts, a formal Rules of Conduct for Magistrates was promulgated by […]

Earlier today, Chief Justice Paul Newby rescinded the two remaining COVID-19 Emergency Directives. The Chief Justice determined that the enactment of S.L. 2021-47 (Senate Bill 255) on Friday rendered unnecessary Emergency Directive 3, […]

Last night, I sat in a church parking lot, masked and socially distant, listening to live Christmas carols.  It is still hard to get my head around all the ways […]

Over the last several months, I’ve been working with one of my colleagues to create a Judicial College course for magistrates on decision-making. Working on this has really brought home to me that making decisions is pretty much what judicial officials get paid to do! So far, it looks like the course will be close to equally divided between (1) how to make a legally sound decision, and (2) how to control factors that might get in the way of that. This blog post is about the latter.

**This post was written by SOG faculty member Jeff Welty (although I made a few very minor edits) and posted on the NC Criminal Law Blog on April 30, 2019.

A few weeks ago, WRAL reported that a courtroom deputy and district court judge told a woman waiting in district court that she needed to remove her child from the courtroom. According to the report, the judge and deputy told the woman that no children under 12 were allowed in the courtroom.

READ POST "No Kids in Court? (May 22, 2019)"

In December, the School of Government held the first week of orientation for new district court judges. The class included thirty-one new judges. Most of the judges took the bench […]

Imagine this scenario: Judge A had a busy civil calendar before leaving for vacation.  Although all the hearings are complete, the judge did not make rulings on some issues.  As […]

What is a gatekeeper order?