We’re still beta-testing this newsletter and would love your feedback. Let us know what you think courts@theassemblync.com. When Durham established its Community Safety Department in July 2021, it was just over a year after George Floyd’s murder sparked a national movement to defund police departments. At that point, reform efforts were breaking against the rocks […]
Jeffrey Billman
Jeffrey Billman is a politics and law reporter for The Assembly. The former editor-in-chief of INDY in Durham, he holds a master's degree in public policy analysis from the University of Central Florida.
Posted inCourts & Justice, Health
Durham’s New Model for Public Safety
The city launched its unarmed emergency response team amid a fierce debate over policing. Now the program is poised to expand.
Posted inNewsletters
The N.C. Supreme Court’s Power Play
We’re still beta-testing this newsletter and would love your feedback. Let us know what you think courts@theassemblync.com. On Friday, the North Carolina Supreme Court’s Republican majority decided a trio of voting rights cases—political gerrymandering, voter ID, and felon enfranchisement—in legislative Republicans’ favor. The rulings were expected, but that didn’t make them less momentous. House Speaker […]
Posted inAll Access
eCourts Not Actually a Mess, Court System Says
We’re still beta-testing this newsletter and would love your feedback. Let us know what you think: courts@theassemblync.com. Also, if you have an nccourts.gov email address, please let us know that you’ve received this. The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts would like everyone to know that its no-good, very-bad eCourts rollout hasn’t actually been […]
Posted inAll Access
A Consequential, Politically Charged, and Highly Unusual Case
We’re still beta testing this newsletter and would love your feedback. Take a brief survey here. Three federal appellate judges heard arguments in late January in a hugely consequential, politically charged lawsuit over North Carolina’s refusal to cover gender-affirming care for state employees and their dependents. But those judges won’t decide the case—at least not […]
Posted inAll Access
The New NC Supreme Court’s First Decisions
In late January, North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat, said the court’s new Republican majority planned to strip the Court of Appeals of the ability to determine which of its rulings set precedents.
Posted inCourts & Justice
Inside Raleigh’s Fake-Heroin Scandal
Digging into more than 1,300 pages of testimony in Irving et. al v. City of Raleigh.
Posted inCourts & Justice
A $100 Million Mess
The rollout of North Carolina’s long-delayed attempt to digitize court records has been a catastrophe. Can it be salvaged?
Posted inCourts & Justice
Raleigh’s Thin Blue Line
Police say they acted swiftly to address concerns about falsified evidence in the vice unit. But new court documents show officers knew about problematic arrests months earlier.
Posted inPolitics & Government
Tangled Up In Blue
North Carolina Democrats are tired of losing, and some blame Gov. Roy Cooper’s hand-picked party leader. Will they risk their future on an untested 25-year-old, or hope that staying the course yields better results?
