It is often said that nothing good happens after 2 a.m. In keeping with that idea, a number of North Carolina municipalities have imposed curfews that prohibit juveniles from being out past a certain hour. Are such curfews permissible? How strict may they be? Must they have exceptions? I am sometimes asked about curfews, and although I don’t claim any special expertise, I thought I’d do my best to address some of those questions in this post. Adult curfews. This post focuses on juvenile curfews. That’s because standing adult curfews are almost certainly unlawful, as “the right to travel upon the public streets . . . is a part of every individual’s liberty, protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and by the Law of the Land Clause . . . of the Constitution of North Carolina.” State v. Dobbins, 277 N.C. 484 (1971). Under limited circumstances, adult curfews are permissible. Primarily, cities and counties may impose adult curfews during states of emergency pursuant to G.S. 166A-19.31(b)(1). See Dobbins, supra (upholding the validity of a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew imposed for several days in Asheville in response to unrest at Asheville High School); United States v. Chalk, 441 F.2d 1277 (4th Cir. 1971) (same, and describing the unrest as “a battle between police officers and black students”; this Asheville Citizen Times article provides additional information about what took place at the school, which was integrated in the fall of 1969). Individualized [...]
Faculty Coordinators
