All posts in category Courts

Missed the podium

We can’t blame town attorney Ralph Karpinos’ go-for-the-gold spirit on the Olympics. The issues he pressed forward on that landed the town on the wrong side of lawsuits began long before the qualifying rounds began. And as gymnast and Olympic silver medalist McKayla Maroney found out yesterday, sometimes despite all your preparations and efforts, you […]

Court goes to the dogs

Government by gut feeling has spread from the Town Council dais to the District Court bench. Last week Lunsford Long, the newest District Court judge in North Carolina’s District 15-B, covering Orange and Chatham counties, presided over a case in which a pet owner sued Orange County to exempt her dog from a state-mandated six-month […]

Supreme Court on VOE

The Supreme Court struck down a portion of Arizona’s Voter Owned Election law on Monday. North Carolina is one of four other states that have a provision similar to what the nation’s highest court deemed unconstitutional. But town attorney Ralph Karpinos said the ruling won’t affect Chapel Hill’s VOE program. The ruling did not invalidate […]

Order in the court

Last week the N.C. Court of Appeals vacated a child custody order issued by Chief District Court Judge Joe Buckner in 2007, on the grounds that Buckner’s order contained “patently false” information. The decision written by N.C. Appellate Court Judge Rick Elmore noted that Buckner entered the custody order without hearing any evidence. Elmore also […]