The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- North Carolina
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- N.C.G.S. 7A-31 (discretionary review); N.C. Const. art. I, secs. 1, 19
- Issued
- 2024-08-23 Aug. 23, 2024
- Effective
- 2024-08-23
- End
- n/a (judicial opinion)
- In force
- Aug. 23, 2024 (no end date recorded; counted as in force for 120 days)
- Limitation types
- Business closureGathering capOther
- Addressees
- specified businesses (an outdoor racetrack); by its reasoning, every venue and business subject to the mass-gathering and operating restrictions
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: North Carolina DUT-NC
Operative words
the Secretary... issued an abatement order that required Ace Speedway to close its operations as an "imminent hazard" to public health.... the trial court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Ace Speedway from conducting races and other events at its facilities until it complied with the terms of the abatement order.
Penalty
As recited: Class 2 misdemeanor enforcement of EO 141; imminent-hazard abatement order under G.S. 130A-20; temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction
What it required
Records, as the Court's statement of the facts, that a business which operated in violation of the EO 141 mass-gathering limit was told by the Governor on June 5, 2020 that its events 'violated the executive order and were criminal acts subject to enforcement by local law enforcement officers', was ordered closed by the Secretary under the imminent-hazard power, and was enjoined by the Superior Court until it complied; the Court held that the speedway's counterclaims under Article I, Sections 1 and 19 of the State Constitution were colorable and affirmed the denial of the State's motion to dismiss them. Character as recorded: adjudication (order_penalty layer).
Retrieval noteCite for the enforcement facts and for the Court's recognition that the executive order 'applied to Ace Speedway' and was enforced by abatement order and injunction; the holding concerns the sufficiency of the speedway's pleading against the State's sovereign-immunity defense, decided years after the quarters, and does not bear on whether the orders bound businesses when issued. Slip opinion page numbers are the PDF's own.