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VOLUME 34 NUMBER 13 ■
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JUNE 20, 2022 ■ $8.50
Asheville-based federal attorney to head up new post ■ BY JASON THOMAS jthomas@scbiznews.com
After GRTC was incorporated in 1973, the city of Richmond retained all shares of GRTC and authority to appoint all of its board members. GRTC sells ad space on its busses and advertisers must comply with GRTC’s content policy which prohibits “all political ads” with the stated “intent not to allow any of its transit vehicles or property to become a public forum for dissemination, debate, or discussion of public issues.” The policy, however, does not de-
United States Attorney Dena J. King has selected Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Caroline McLean of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville to serve as the Western District’s Environmental Justice coordinator. On May 5, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a series of actions aimed at enhancing the Department’s efforts to secure environmental justice for all Americans. Caroline In making the an- McLean nouncement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland highlighted specific actions to strengthen the Department’s commitment to ensuring equal justice under the law by advancing the cause of environmental justice, a news release stated. Specifically, Attorney General Garland announced the creation of a new Office of Environmental Justice within the Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division (ENRD); the launching of a comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy to advance the cause of environmental justice through the enforcement of federal laws; and the issuance of an Interim Final Rule to restore the use of supplemental environmental projects when deemed appropriate. “Although violations of our environmental laws can happen anywhere, communities of color, indig-
See Restraint Page 6 ►
S e e F e d e r a l At t o r n e y P a g e 6 ►
Unreasonable restraint The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed with a lower court regarding politically charge advertisements on public transit vehicles. depositphotos
Court rules political ad ban doesn’t pass constitutional muster ■ BY NICK HURSTON A public transit system had a legitimate interest in avoiding some politically charged advertisements, but its lack of a formal definition of “political” or written guidelines clarifying how its prohibition on political ads was to be applied doomed its policy as unconstitutional, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held. Judge Julius N. Richardson agreed with the Eastern District of Virginia that Greater Richmond Transit Company, or GRTC, was a state actor and that its ban on politi-
cal ads was “not ‘capable of reasoned application’ and [was] therefore unconstitutionally unreasonable.” But the judge noted the district court erred in denying facial relief. “Even if another public-transit political advertising ban may be constitutional, this ban is incapable of reasoned, constitutional application in all circumstances,” he explained. Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory and Judge Paul V. Niemeyer joined Richardson in the May 20 opinion in White Coat Waste Project v. Greater Richmond Transit Company (VLW 022-2-124).
GRTC’s policy
Plaintiff settles for $1.7M in bus stop injury ■ BY HEATH HAMACHER hhamacher@nclawyersweekly.com
Five years after the incident, the family of a then-8-year-old boy who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and a broken leg when he was struck by a car while crossing the road after getting off his school bus has settled its claims for $1.7 million. According to plaintiffs’ attorneys Isaac Thorp of Thorp Law in Raleigh and Wade Harrison of Harrison Whitaker in Burlington, the Alamance County bus driver failed to activate the flashing lights, engage the stop sign, or look for oncoming cars before signaling to Anthony Joe “AJ” Harper that it
was safe to cross the road. AJ started to run toward his aunt when he saw her waiting for him, and the elderly driver who struck AJ never Isaac Thorp Wade Harrison saw him until it was too late. “AJ was excited to celebrate an early release day because his greataunt, who was parked across Highway 62, was going to take him to his favorite pizza restaurant
when he got off the bus,” Thorp said. The attorneys said that some defendants contended that the child was contributorily negligent but that students are taught to follow the bus driver’s hand signals once they get off the bus. Here, they said, the driver signaled to AJ to cross. Thorp said that the incident was clearly recorded by the dash camera of a vehicle stopped behind the school bus. “It was very helpful for us to be able to show the defense attorneys that this is what [AJ’s aunt] witnessed as it was happening,” Thorp said. See Plaintiff Settles Page 6 ►
INSIDE BAR DISCIPLINE ROUNDUP
VERDICTS & SETTLEMENTS
NEWS
Durham attorney sent to prison in CARES Act scheme.
Investment fraud: Couple settles for $875K in fraud case.
Charlotte Legal Diversity Clerkship names 2022 class.
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