North Carolina treats a driver under 21 who has alcohol in the system very differently from an adult. For an adult, the question is impairment or a 0.08 reading. For anyone who has not turned 21, N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3 makes it a crime to drive on a highway or public vehicular area while consuming alcohol, or at any time while any previously consumed alcohol or controlled substance remains in the body. The State does not have to show impairment. The presence of alcohol is the offense.

People search for this as underage DUI or underage DWI, and the terms are worth sorting out before anything else. North Carolina’s formal name for the adult offense is impaired driving under N.C.G.S. § 20-138.1, and neither acronym of DUI nor DWI is referenced within statute. It does refer to driving “while under the influence of an impairing substance,” which many folks understand as “DUI.” The underage charge (N.C.G.S. § 20-138.3) is a separate offense with its own name, driving after consuming under 21, and it is not technically an impaired driving charge at all. That distinction is not academic. The two offenses are proven and punished in different ways, and the difference works in real cases.

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That does not make every digital location search unlawful. It does not mean the evidence in Chatrie must be suppressed. It does not prevent police from using location data to investigate serious crimes.

Key Point | Google Location History is not routine business paperwork simply because a technology company stores it. It can reveal where a phone traveled, where it stopped, and what private places it reached. When the government demands that information, the Fourth Amendment applies.

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The Court struck down a Hawaii statute, not a North Carolina one. It did not require restaurants, stores, hotels, or shopping centers to allow firearms. Instead, the decision reaffirmed a constitutional principle that matters nationwide. A state cannot treat firearms as presumptively prohibited on private property open to the public simply because the property is privately owned. The property owner still decides.

Headlines described the ruling as the Court striking down a Hawaii gun law. While accurate, that description does not answer the question most North Carolina readers are asking. Can a licensed permit holder lawfully carry a concealed handgun into a business that is open to the public? The answer depends less on Hawaii than on how the Second Amendment, North Carolina statutes, private property rights, and ordinary trespass law fit together.

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That confusion is understandable. A family may see large roadside fireworks stores just across the South Carolina line. Someone from out of town on vacation may legally buy aerial fireworks in another state. A parent may assume anything sold openly must be lawful to bring home and use in the backyard or on the beach. A teenager may think sparklers and firecrackers are basically the same thing.

North Carolina law does not treat them the same way and, frankly, the fireworks law can come off as a bit harsh at times. Whether you’re in Charlotte shooting off a bottle rocket or on Bald Head Island lighting up some firecrackers, the consequences can be serious. Indeed, some fireworks violations in North Carolina are actually criminal offenses that can carry criminal consequences. And sometimes there aren’t many warnings before a citation is issued or someone gets arrested.

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Historically, disagreements belonged in the pages of the United States Reports, not during opinion announcements or through public exchanges between members of the Supreme Court.

There have always been strong personalities, competing judicial philosophies, and sharply divided votes. What makes the 2026 remarkable is not simply the number of 6 to 3 decisions or controversial constitutional questions. It is that Americans increasingly are seeing the disagreements themselves.

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Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 20-16.5, a second pending DWI may keep the license revoked indefinitely, even after the first 30-day civil revocation has already ended. The driver is kept off the road before any conviction, on charges that have not yet been proven.

For many defendants, that result feels like a penalty imposed before the State has proven its case. The civil revocation is not without Due Process of Law. It rests on a judicial determination that the statutory conditions for civil revocation have been met, and the law provides a right to a hearing to contest it.

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TL;DR | Moore involves a trial for fleeing to elude arrest with a motor vehicle, reckless driving to endanger, speeding, operating a motor vehicle without a license, driving while impaired, and displaying an expired registration plate. The defendant testified that he was not trying to flee from law enforcement during the charged event. He said he was driving to safety because he did not want to stop on a back road without witnesses, lights, cameras, or other visible protections. That testimony created the problem.  During cross-examination, the State asked whether he would have pulled over if the encounter had happened in a city with more lights and people around. The defendant answered that he would have pulled over. The prosecutor then asked the trial judge for permission to question him about a different police encounter than the incident being tried. According to the State, that separate encounter went to credibility because it allegedly involved conduct that could be viewed as evading law enforcement even though it happened in the city. The trial court allowed the questioning but barred the State from asking about any charges from the 2024 event. The jury heard the defendant’s account of the separate encounter. The jury did not hear about charges from that event. The defendant was convicted, appealed, and argued that the questioning violated Rule 404(b) and Rule 403.  The Court of Appeals found no error.

North Carolina Rule 404(b) Impeachment Evidence | Quick Reference Chart

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Criminal charges can carry consequences beyond the legal system. They can affect family relationships, employment, professional licenses, reputations, friendships, and self-image. For many clients, the emotional fallout begins the moment they are arrested, served with a warrant, receive a citation or traffic ticket, learn they are under investigation, or see their name appear in a court file.

What surprises criminal defense lawyers is not the existence of embarrassment. It is what embarrassment sometimes causes defendants to do.

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These events are frequently discussed through the lens of race, politics, or social change. Those subjects are undeniably part of the historical record. For lawyers, judges, and students of legal history, however, another perspective deserves equal attention. Each episode reveals something about the rule of law, due process of law, equal protection, voting rights, freedom of expression, and the ability of legal institutions to uphold constitutional principles during periods of conflict and uncertainty.

This article is not intended as a partisan argument. It does not seek to assign modern political labels to historical events. The political actors, parties, and public debates changed dramatically between 1865, 1898, and 1971. The constitutional principles at stake remained remarkably consistent.

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