CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The North Carolina General Assembly has worked on thousands of bills this session, and now several new laws and sections of laws are going into effect in North Carolina on Friday, Dec. 1.
WCNC Charlotte is taking a closer look at some of the laws.
Guarantee 2nd Amendment Freedom and Protections
NC leaders voted to make revisions to the state's concealed carry laws to allow firearms to be carried on certain school property during certain times. Senate Bill 41 passed through the General Assembly in March before being vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper. Both chambers later overrode the veto.
Section 1 of the bill goes into law on Dec. 1. This section allows people to practice concealed carry of a firearm at a religious school outside of school operating hours.
More specifically, a definition is added to the state's laws on carrying weapons on education properties to define "school operating hours."
School operating hours will be defined as:
- The premises are being used for curricular or extracurricular activities
- The premises are being used for educational, instructional, or school-sponsored activities
- The premises are being used for programs for minors by entities not affiliated with the religious institution
Concealed handgun carry will only be allowed on religious school property outside of operating hours as defined above. Concealed carry remains banned on public school property.
Parents' Bill of Rights
Section 3 of the Parents' Bill of Rights goes into effect in North Carolina on Friday.
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation on July 5, but became law on Aug. 16 due to a veto override. Most of the legislation went into effect immediately.
The section going into effect on Dec. 1 is entitled "Parental authorization for health care of minors," and is focused on parental consent for treatment of their children.
Specifically, the section amends the existing "Treatment of Minors" article in Chapter 90 of the General Statutes to define several terms:
- Health care facility: Under the legislation, health care facilities where health care services are provided to patients, to include an employee of a health care facility that is licensed and/or authorized to provide health care services, as well as the directors and officers of a facility.
- Health care practitioner: This would include a person licensed, certified or authorized under the correct section of the General Statues to provide health care services within their professor or "in an approved education or training program," as well as employees or agents of that person.
- Minor: The legislation defines a minor as someone under 18 years old who has not been married or emancipated.
- Parents: The legislation defines a parent as a given minor's parent, guardian, or someone "who has assumed parental responsibilities."
- Treatment: This includes medical procedures and treatments like X-rays, drug administration, blood transfusion, anesthetics use, and more.
Under Section 3, and based on these definitions, a health care practitioner is not allowed to "provide, solicit, or arrange treatment" for a minor without the documented consent from the parent, except "as otherwise provided in this Article or by court order." Additionally, a health care facility cannot allow treatment on a minor in its facility without documented consent from the parent, with the same exceptions.
Section 3 notes that it doesn't apply to a clinical laboratory's services, "unless the services are delivered through a direct encounter with the minor child at the clinical laboratory facility."
Anyone who violates the section -- health care practitioner or otherwise -- could face disciplinary action by the board that authorized that practitioner to provide treatment, and could face a fine up to $5,000.
Fentanyl Drug Offenses and Related Changes
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department reported in October that it has seen a spike in overdose deaths this year, and overdose calls for service are also on the rise. Its data shows that fentanyl is becoming a major problem in the Charlotte area.
A measure titled “An Act to Increase the Fine Imposed on Persons Convicted of Trafficking in Heroin, Fentanyl, or Carfentanil” goes into effect on Friday with stricter penalties for traffickers.
Under this law, anyone caught with more than 4 grams but less than 14 grams of an opioid will be charged with a Class F felony and face 70-93 years in prison. This part remains the same as the old law but, the fine increased from $50,000 to $500,000 if the opioid is something like heroin or fentanyl.
The new law also expands the scope of “death by distribution through unlawful sale of certain controlled substances.”
A person is guilty of “death by distribution” if they supplied a controlled substance to someone, and taking that drug caused the person to die.
The law going into place on Friday makes this a first-degree murder charge if the person who supplied the deadly substance was related to or lived with the person who died as a result. The same applies if the person was ever married to or had a child in common with the deceased.
In those cases, the act states, “there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the murder is a willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.”
In addition to the stricter drug penalties, the new law makes changes to autopsy rules.
“If, in the opinion of the medical examiner investigating the case or of the Chief Medical Examiner, it is advisable and in the public interest that an autopsy or other study be made; or, if an autopsy or other study is requested by the district attorney of the county or by any superior court judge, an autopsy or other study shall be made by the Chief Medical Examiner or by a competent pathologist designated by the Chief Medical Examiner,” the law reads.
It clarifies that anyone may request documents or videos related to these autopsies for a fee of $2,800.
Protect Our Students Act
Sections 1, 2 and 5 of the Protect Our Students Act go into effect Friday, Dec. 1.
The law, introduced as House Bill 142, was filed on Feb. 16, 2023, and signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper on Oct. 2.
Its purpose, in whole, is to closely define penalties and terms for sex offenses against students in North Carolina, as well as to increase penalties against school officials for failing to report misconduct to the State Board of Education. It also requires public schools serving grades 6-12 to show videos containing information about sexual abuse.
Section 1 of the law details the modification of penalties and redefines certain sex offenses, including sexual activity with a student. The penalty for this sexual offense was upgraded to a Class G felony, and it pertains to any school personnel, other than a teacher, school administrator, student teacher, school safety officer, or coach, and is less than four years older than the victim and engages in vaginal intercourse or a sexual act with a victim who is a student.
Another modification includes the redefining of taking indecent liberties with a student. The term indecent liberties was redefined as "willfully taking or attempting to take any immoral, improper, or indecent liberties with a student for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire."
Section 2 deals with the requirements for school officials, including any superintendent, assistant superintendent, associate superintendent, personnel administrator, or principal, to report misconduct toward students. The amendment makes it a requirement for schools officials to report the misconduct to the State Board of Education within five days of dismissal, determination of disciplinary action, or acceptance of resignation.
Failure to report misconduct is now defined as a Class I felony.
Elections Law Changes
One section of changes to North Carolina’s elections law is set to take effect in December, which outlines punishments for anyone who tries to improperly access or disclose ballot records.
Section 37 of SB 747, which takes effect December 1, says that anyone with access to official voted ballots or records who shares how someone voted on that ballot can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. Additionally, anyone who impersonates a chief judge, judge of election, or another precinct official will face a misdemeanor. It will also be deemed a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone other than an employee with the North Carolina State Board of Elections or a county board of elections to add an identifier to any absentee ballot request form for the purpose of tracking said ballot.
Much of the rest of the law will take effect January 1, 2024. While it was vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper, a Republican supermajority in both houses of the North Carolina General Assembly pushed the new changes forward. The omnibus law eliminates a three-day grace window for county election offices to count absentee ballots, instead demanding they be counted by the time in-person voting ends at 7:30 p.m. on the date of an election.
Another part of the law, Section 44, will take effect on July 1, 2024. It will prohibit officials from accepting private money to administer elections and directs state courts to inform elections officials about potential jurors who may be disqualified if they aren’t U.S. citizens. That would enable those citizens to be removed from voter rolls. Further, county election boards will be required to maintain a list of eligible voters and continually cross-check them at least once per week to remove people from it who have died or have been convicted of a felony at either the state or federal level. County boards will also be required to send any registered voters who did not vote in an election a confirmation mailing to keep them on the list. Anyone who doesn’t respond will be removed.
SB 747 also makes new allowances for partisan poll observers and toughens the rules by which someone who both registers to vote and cast a ballot during the state’s 17-day early in-person voting period can have their choices count. Those changes, along with others, will take effect on January 1, 2024.
Democrats have lambasted the changes, claiming they suppress voters. Several voter rights groups filed federal lawsuits to challenge the state law. Republicans, however, claim the changes improve election integrity.
The law will also require elections officials to handle public education efforts about photo ID requirements for voting throughout 2024. Additionally, the state Department of Information Technology is expected to study the feasibility of replacing the statewide voting system and provide a report by March 1, 2024. A pilot program for signature verification software will also be launched for the 2024 primary election for mail-in absentee ballots, with the NCSBE required to pick 10 counties for the pilot and provide a final report by May 1, 2024.
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