explaining, “A constitutional question will not be passed upon if there is also present some other ground upon which the case may be decided” before settling STATE V. WILLIAMS 2022-NCCOA-562 Opinion of the Court the issue on appeal on statutory rather than constitutional grounds
How later courts described this case
- explaining, “A constitutional question will not be passed upon if there is also present some other ground upon which the case may be decided” before settling STATE V. WILLIAMS 2022-NCCOA-562 Opinion of the Court the issue on appeal on statutory rather than constitutional grounds
- “If the case cán be decided on one of two grounds, one involving a constitutional question, the other a question of lesser importance, the latter alone will be determined. The Court will not decide questions of a constitutional nature unless absolutely necessary to a decision of the case.”
- “The dog is of a noble, free nature, yet is domesticated and dedicated to the well-being of people of all races.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Judge Hedrick
concurring in result only:
I concur completely in the decision that the citation in question does not charge an offense. I am compelled to register, however, my opposition to using the North Carolina Court of Appeals Reports to publish my colleague’s totally irrelevant, however learned, dissertation on dogs.