Sunday, November 12, 2006

Hobbs v. Smith, et al. order/opinion

Finally after doing some searching this morning, someone at North Carolina Family Policy Council was kind enough to post the order (and likely as close as anyone is get to an opinion) in the Hobbs v. Smith, et al. case (also known as Hobbs v. Pender County), 2006 WL 3103008 (Pender Co. 2006). The NCFPC also notes that the Attorney General did not appeal the decision (at this point, any appeal would be denied as untimely). I suppose I shouldn't be totally surprised, given Cooper's political inclinations, but it would have been interesting to see how this case would have played out in the appellate level. If you have forgotten, the relevance of this case was that the North Carolina cohabitation statute, N.C. G.S. § 14-184, unconstitutional.

As the News & Observer noted, this order only applies to the parties in the matter, and since the order is unpublished, it has no precedential value (not that Superior Court orders and opinions have much thereof either). I also get the feeling that this order may have been drafted by one of the lawyers in the case (not an unusual practice in trial courts).

Since I don't know how long the NCPFC's link will last, I will post the PDF myself and OCR when I get a chance. Order in Hobbs v. Smith et al.. See also my earlier posts on this matter.

METAR KRDU 121851Z 31508G17KT 10SM -RN BKN032 BKN070 BKN150 13/04 A2985 RMK SLP109

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