Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (Sept. 2025)

This post summarizes published criminal law and related cases released by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals during September 2025. Cases of potential interest to state practitioners are summarized monthly. Previous summaries of Fourth Circuit cases are available here. Former law criminalizing improper voting by felons violated equal protection principles and was properly enjoined Philip Randolf Institute v. North Carolina State Board of Elections, ___ F.4th ___; 2025 WL 2627027 (Sept. 12, 2025). People convicted of a felony are not permitted to vote in North Carolina until their citizenship rights have been restored. N.C. Const. art. VI, § 2(3). A convicted felon’s citizenship rights are automatically restored by law once the person’s sentence is complete. G.S. 13-1. Before 2024, North Carolina law imposed felony liability on a felon who improperly votes, regardless of whether the person knew they were ineligible to vote. G.S. 163-275(5) (2019). The plaintiffs, two advocacy groups, sued the North Carolina State Board of Elections and the district attorneys of the state, arguing that G.S. 163-275(5) violated equal protection and due process protections in the Fourteenth Amendment. The district court denied a motion to dismiss by the district attorneys, and the case proceeded to summary judgment. Before summary judgment was decided, the General Assembly amended the statute to add a knowledge element. As amended, G.S. 163-275(5) (2024) criminalizes the act of voting by a person convicted of a felony who knows that their citizenship rights have not yet been restored. After additional briefing in response to the legislative [...]