NC Supreme Court

The Democratic majority held the prevailing opinions Friday in a pair of cases involving youths who committed murder, rape, or both. It agreed that sentences that required the offenders to serve 45 or 50 years before a possible release were the equivalents of having no chance at all and are thus constitutional.

A divided panel of the state Court of Appeals last August had vacated the 2019 convictions of David Myron Dover in the 2016 stabbing death of 79-year-old Arthur “Buddy” Davis in Kannapolis.

The decisions, which come after a Court of Appeals ruling in December also siding with the state, appear to mean Barber's second-degree trespass conviction is final.

State lawmakers must again draw new political districts, following a major ruling from the North Carolina Supreme Court last week. But just how much will the new lines change, and is the recent ruling likely to be revisited? WUNC Politics reporter Rusty Jacobs offers insight on the major decision and the likely next steps.

North Carolina's top legislative Democrats are praising a redistricting ruling by the state Supreme Court. But exactly how new lines must be formed and analyzed to meet constitutional muster remained murky on Monday.

The state Supreme Court has declared congressional and state legislative district maps drawn by the North Carolina General Assembly's Republican majority to be unconstitutionally gerrymandered based on partisan bias.

In our weekly review of state political news, Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch and Donna King of the Carolina Journal anticipate that the NC Supreme Court will strike down new congressional and legislative districts. The analysts also offer reaction following a fire at a fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem, and share whether they've checked the state database for unclaimed property.

A major case moved through North Carolina’s high court this week. At issue are whether Congressional and legislative districts can be so partisan they violate the state constitution. Will justices strike down the districts? And if they do, then what? WUNC's Jeff Tiberii and Dave DeWitt discuss the case. Then later, Jeff talks with Greensboro economist Andrew Brod about what a major economic development announcement could mean for the Piedmont Triad.

As a major redistricting cases lands before the state supreme court, calls are growing louder for some justices to recuse themselves. On this episode of The Politics Podcast, three former judges talk about the issue of recusal - and the importance of judicial independence.

A three-judge panel will now decide whether the North Carolina General Assembly's Republican majority gerrymandered political maps with extreme, unconstitutional partisan bias.