Where a former state court magistrate judge was terminated after she made comments to a local paper about pending matter, her First Amendment retaliation claim may proceed. Background Elizabeth Fuller was employed as a magistrate judge in the Eighteenth Judicial ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where multiple people sued the Commonwealth of Virginia, Commonwealth officials and Democratic Party officials over the locations and timing of a “firehouse primary,” but the Commonwealth officials were immune from suit, the plaintiffs lacked standing and their claims failed as ...

Tagged with: Constitutional Judge Roderick C. Young U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A federal court declared a town’s ban on livestreaming certain interactions may not survive First Amendment scrutiny, and that a plaintiff who was barred from livestreaming an interaction due to the policy “plausibly alleged” a constitutional violation. “Defendants have thus ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Julius N. Richardson

Where a North Carolina statute burdened the newsgathering and publishing activities of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, and the statute did not satisfy intermediate or strict scrutiny, North Carolina was enjoined from applying the statute to ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Henry F. Floyd

Where a woman sued a Spotsylvania County Deputy Sheriff after learning the deputy offered to buy lunch for another officer if he cited the woman for reckless driving, but there was no error in the jury instructions or evidentiary rulings, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr.

Where a North Carolina law punishing certain “derogatory reports” about candidates for public office likely criminalizes at least some truthful speech, and draws impermissible content-based distinctions in identifying which speech to criminalize, it is likely unconstitutional. Background A 90-year-old North ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Toby Heytens

Where a passenger in a vehicle plausibly alleged that the Town of Winterville had a policy that prevents a passenger from livestreaming their traffic stop, and such a policy violated the passenger’s First Amendment rights, his suit against the town ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Julius N. Richardson

Where a church purchased land knowing it was zoned for agricultural use and refused to comply with Prince William County’s requirements for a special-use permi, or SUP, Prince William County did not violate the church’s rights under the Religious Land ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Robert B. King

A public health restriction that prevented non-resident property owners from entering a county during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t a governmental taking, according to a ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A Virginia couple ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Julius N. Richardson

Where owners of an Outer Banks beach house argued that Dare County took their property without compensation when it banned non-resident property owners from entering the county during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, their suit was dismissed. Although ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Constitutional Judge Julius N. Richardson