***This post was written by my colleague Phil Dixon. You can contact Phil at dixon@sog.unc.edu

I started wondering about that question after reading last month’s decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Carolina Youth Action Project v. Wilson, 60 F.4th 770 (4th Cir. 2023) (summarized here). There, the court struck down two South Carolina state laws aimed in large part at regulating conduct and speech in and around schools. The laws at issue there are similar to our version of disorderly conduct by disrupting schools. This post examines the holding of Carolina Youth Action Project and its potential implications for North Carolina law.